Currently what is darkseed doing?

We are currently rehearsing the songs for our first shows coming up in March, unfortunately only Germany so far. Besides that we do a lot of interviews and are starting to thinking about the next album.

How did Darkseed come into being?

I founded the band in late 1992, in a time where we made deathmetal mixed with some melodic/atmospheric parts. We recorded our first demo tape "Sharing the Grave" which was when we chose the name Darkseed and had the first stable line-up, so this can be seen as the first days of Darkseed.

What does darkseed mean to the members?

I think it differs from member to member. Since me and Tommy Herrmann have been in the band for the longest time and therefore also have most of the work (me in the creative way, him by recording our albums in his own studio + also some songwriting), Darkseed takes much time of our everyday life. Our other members have various different activities in music business (like being guitar teacher, or expert in studio technique business etc.), but also for them Darkseed is a good way to live the idealism of music without caring that much about how much money could be gained with Darkseed.

Darkseed has been described as a progressive goth metal group. to the band, what does that mean?

Hm, I don´t think we are that innovative, it´s just that we were one of the very first German gothic metal bands. Now, in 2005, you could better describe us as "typical gothic metal band" but with an individual touch making us sounding like Darkseed which is the melodies, the direct lyrics and the way we use electronics. Our fans like us for not trying to be that innovative.

Why the year long break?

After 10 years of Darkseed and 10 metal CDs (not only Darkseed) I decided to care about other musical directions like dark ethnic soundtrack music. I made an album called "Shiva in Exile" which won the Just Plain Folks Music Award in the category "best new age/world album 2004". I have no idea why they have chosen me as winner, it was just a home recording project but with much idealism, maybe that was the reason. After that my metal idealism came back and we decided to write "Ultimate Darkness".

You have a new album out recently. Care to describe it? Is it the same as previous releases? Is it different?

We released our 6th full length album called "Ultimate Darkness" on the German label Massacre Records on January 24th. In includes 12 tracks of hard and passionate gothic metal music with a direct lyrical message describing what ultimate darkness could be. For me it´s the real experience of darkness like disappointments in relationships, a lack of orientation when ít´s about life goals, the shallow behaviour/way of thinking in our society, the loss of values, destruction of nature etc. The CD comes with a 13 track bonus CD featuring many unreleased tracks from the Darkseed history, a big thank you for our fans who now follow our musical way for such a long time! The main difference compared to our older albums is the fact that the album is harder and more catchy.

Who does the song writting for the band? Is it a "one man show," or does the band as a whole forge the songs?

Since I am the only member who still plays with Darkseed since the beginning, it´s me who developed this sort of "Darkseed style" and therefore I write most of the material, together with Tommy Herrmann who joined the band in 1995. Maybe other members will participate in the songwriting too on the next album, it for sure would enrich our style.

Is Darkseed a full time job, or are there other projects with various groups?

Since the time of file sharing you cannot earn any money with making metal music, unfortunately. Of course you can if you are a really big band, but internationally we are still seen as an underground band.

My other project is Shiva in Exile, an ethnic/soundtrack project, and I plan to write another ethnic influenced album in 2005, but this time more gothic than soundtrack like.

Recently it looks as if there has been a line up change. Why is that, and how has it impacted Darkseed?

Oh, we've had many line-up changes during the last 12 years. In 12 years so many things change. The private lives of members, the musical tastes, the character. All this leads to line-up changes easily once you still see music as idealistic thing and not only as job. That´s why those line-up changes are natural and didn´t harm us at all. It´s cool to always get to know new musicians and work together with them! Though our current line-up is really good!

Do you have any plans on touring? if so, what are they?

We have a very good German booker called Extratours, however I guess he cannot do anything for us outside Europe. We´d like to tour USA, cause we have so many cool fans there. Yes, our American fans are the most crazy ones who collect every album they can get! Some weeks ago I even got a letter with the cover of our 1993 demo to autograph, don´t ask me where this freak bought it. That´s damn cool!!!

What does the future hold for Darkseed?

We hope to start writing the new album in May/June and until that we will think a lot about how we could improve our creative work. Besides that, playing concerts and always waiting for fans to join our cool forum at www.darkseed.com where we talk with many fans, even about private issues.
Feel free to join!