Gott ist tot!: Another Interview with Noisebringer Records
Checking in on inhumanely prolific one-man metal label Noise. Noisey, eat your heart out.
Gott ist tot! Gott bleibt tot! Und wir haben ihn getötet!
God is dead! God remains dead! And Noisebringer has killed him!
-Friedrich Nietzsche on Noisebringer Records worship
It’s been about five months since I did my first interview with Noise, mastermind behind Noisebringer Records, so as you would assume, he had another album ready to drop, an EP on the horizon, and an accompanying music video. I have no doubt his release schedule will likely approach Buckethead-levels in the next few years. Possibly as a Christmas present, Noise revealed over the holidays that he was also the artist behind, Non Est Deus, a project already active with two releases but now joining Noisebringer’s Holy Trinity of Kanonenfieber and Leiþa. Two projects have upcoming releases: Non Est Deus’s Impious, and Kanonenfieber’s EP Yankee Division. In anticipation of everything this absolute madman had coming up, I sat down for another interview with the TovH favorite and German record-chart topper.
Eenzaamheid: How did Noisebringer Records come about? I saw that the earlier Non Est Deus records were released on other labels like A Pile of Graves, so what motivated you to start Noisebringer?
Noise: I’ve had contact with many distros and labels in my career. Most of the time I was disappointed by the work they have done. I even got tricked pretty badly and paid a lot of money for a release via a German label. Indeed it was a total rip-off and nothing happened. So, I came to the conclusion that no one out there can release and promote my music as good as I can. I teamed up with a few people and we started Noisebringer. I am more than happy that we took that step. Starting your own label is a huge pile of work, that I can promise, but in the end everything depends on you. And if you work hard,, results show up immediately. The other day a friend of mine and owner of the patch-label Starside Relics said: “There is no other band out there having 11 different patch designs within less than one year!” And that‘s the way I do it. If there is demand I am going to move mountains to give people what they want. You see labels out there releasing an LP and CD and if that stuff is sold out you‘ll have to wait over a year until the repress drops.
In the future, do you see Noisebringer Records primarily as a vehicle for your personal projects or are you hoping to release music from other musicians as well? If so, what kind of music would you focus on?
A: At the first point, Noisebringer’s purpose is to sell and promote my very own music and merch. But in the last few months I’ve had contact with many great bands and artists from all over the world. Many of them aren’t satisfied with what their label does for them. It is terrible for me to see how these artists lose all of their drive and passion because of them being in the wrong label or having signed a bad contract. So maybe at some point I‘ll bring some befriended bands into Noisebringer, if they want to, and then indeed, without these life-leeching contracts. And if there will be music from other bands, indeed it will be black and death metal.
I saw that you just put up some material for a new Kanonenfieber EP – are you planning on releasing a full album as a follow-up to this or is this a standalone EP?
The Yankee Division EP is just meant to be an EP. Two tracks, that topic the entry of the USA into World War One and I wanted to keep it short. It‘s a reminder that I am still out there.
I know the lyrics from the first Kanonenfieber album were taken from a collection of notes you had from German WW1 soldiers, but the first song on the new EP is written from the perspective of an American division – do you similarly have letters from American or French soldiers describing their experiences or are these songs taken from your overall knowledge about WW1?
For the Yankee Division March I had a report from an American soldier from exactly that time. It was not a hand-written letter as I had them for Menschenmühle but pretty similar. I gathered it from a military archive. The German part is based on the letter of a German artillery gunner.
Are you planning on having Kanonenfieber remain a one-man-band or are you interested in adding new members? I saw that you’re planning on touring in a few months, how will that work – are you hiring touring musicians or having friends play (if not expanding the band)?
Kanonenfieber will stay in my hands. Maybe I‘ll try to implement a producer at some point but yet the project won’t leave my 4 walls. I mean, never change a running system, right? The guys I am going to tour with are good friends of mine. I have knownmost of them for many years, and in my opinion it’s the best set-up I could have for Kanonenfieber. All of them are great musicians with loads of live experience. Rehearsing works out great, as everyone knows how to do his job and executes it perfectly.
I know shows in Germany have had several cancellations because of COVID – how do you feel about starting touring in a few months?
We had to cancel a few of our shows as well. We still will be able to play in Poland in Chezck, but all the shows in Germany are cancelled. All we can do is hope that this pandemic comes to an end. I am a little scared to be honest. The masks, all the barbed wire on stage, that is going to be dangerous! Haha.
I feel like the first Non Est Deus record was somewhat tongue-in-cheek, while the second one was much more serious – what kind of tone can we expect on the upcoming release?
I‘d say Impious is a mixture between both. There is some storytelling going on as it is on The Last Supper. At the same time there are very serious songs on Impious. I always liked this goofiness in black metal. Those groovy “uff-da” beats, paired with half-spoken half-screamed lyrics always gave me a smile. So you‘ll find some of that stuff on there as well. Just check the song “Christraping Polka” and you’ll know what I mean.
What inspired you to condemn religion so strongly in Non Est Deus? Do you have any personal negative religious experiences behind these thoughts and feelings? Is it just from a study of religion’s place in human history? Just because it’s a black metal band? Some combination of these or something else entirely?
It‘s great that you said “religion” not Christianity. At some point in your life you try to find the reason for your existence on this planet. The easy way out is indeed to claim god would be the creator of all. I totally understand why people were religious in the past. I mean, thunder, earthquakes, volcanoes, where should all this come from? I even understand why people are religious today, as the fear of death and the hope for afterlife is so strong. Religion socialises. You are a member of a group, you go to meetings and so on. It’s the same as being part of a football club or even playing in a band. That said, the hooligans of religions are way worse than any sports hooligans. Those scriptures that were written to enable a peaceful society have been turned into inhuman acts way too often. Fanatic practice of religion is common even in the present. I read the common scriptures of our world religions. None of these would command human beings to kill each other. It‘s those who claim the words of god to be theirs and distort the scriptures in their own favour, to make all inheritors of the particular religion do whatever they are pleased to. In our world’s history there have been thousands of pieces of evidences for these practices. To sum it up: I don’t hate religion. I hate those who use it in their favour.
What kind of sound are you going for on this third release from Non Est Deus? To me it sounds more melodic than on the first record, which sounded closer to a “raw black metal” kind of sound. Was this an intentional shift?
I don’t write or produce albums in an intentional way. I just go for what sounds best in my ears. Often the final product sounds way different than what I was aiming for in the beginning. The first record sounding more raw is owed to my lack of production skills back then. I have new gear, better speakers and produced a lot of albums in between. I wanted to make something melodic, straight forward with a modern, yet organic production and I really hope that it worked out!
So if you’re hankering for some melodic black metal that is both anti-christian and not made by basement dwellers in corpse paint, check out Impious out March 4th (bandcamp friday HINT HINT)
And if you’ve got a fever for some war metal so brutal it’s anti-war (or just a sneak peek at what the masked Kanonenfieber might look like on a stage), check out Kanonefieber’s EP Yankee Division out March 25th and accompanying music video below:
