The hardworking fellows from German metalcoreheads Today Forever are celebrating their first decade as a band with their third full length ‘Relationshipwrecks’, Instead of sending them a birthday cake we’d rather have a chat with vocalist Christian who would tell us all about consuming our cultural resources and how he is in fact a dog on a leash.
What does ’Today Forever’ signify for you?
Christian: The band is art. A kind of art we are devoted to after we’ve finished the work we do for a living. Instead of sitting at home and watch TV, instead of meeting friends to play bowling (we do that once in a while though), instead of wasting our time with something that only consumes the cultural resources of our world we try to create something new by weaving our personal experiences into music and lyrics. And the band is a something like a laboratory: We put ourselves into positions we couldn’t normally be in and find out how it feels. That’s what Rock’n’Roll always made possible and still does for us: To become ‘wild and dangerous animals’ while we are dogs on the leash in our daily life. The positive effect: We can learn to integrate more of the wild animal into our uniform life. Last but not least: Music for us is “’ a sort of a splendid torch which we have to hold up for a moment and want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it out to future generations’ – which is a quote of George Berard Shaw, something he said about life in general.
Is ’Relationshipwrecks’ a very personal album, for example as self therapy for a broken relation you experienced yourself or is it more general?
Christian: There is no therapeutic approach regarding a certain relationship. But nevertheless you can say it is in some way therapeutic. We wrote the record under the impression of several very difficult experiences concerning our relationships to other people, to family, to social groups and – most important – to ourselves. Every human also relates to himself somehow. And by writing and performing these songs we found a way to deal with all the “relation shipwrecks” we experienced. It’s a coping strategy if you want.
You perform a lot on stage, but mainly in your own country. Any plans to take it beyond your borders?
Christian: We’ve been to most of the European countries and the US already, but you are right to say we don't have any actual dates outside of Germany at the moment. It means a substantial effort for us to go on the road for a longer trip – we all have jobs and families at home. But we definitely want to. If anyone pays us flights or gas for the van we go wherever you want to see us play, haha.
How did you team up the guys from Comeback Kid and Silverstein?
Christian: Tim, our drummer, and I organized the first COMEBACK KID Tour in Europe and also did a lot of the driving on that tour. We even knew Andrew and Jeremy before from their other band Figure Four. So that's how we met those guys. We are still friends. Awesome dudes!
Approximately 6 years ago we were lucky to play a show as support for SILVERSTEIN. They digged the cover song we played - Snapcase's “Caboose” - and invited us to play more shows with them. Of course we were stoked. So over the past years we played several support shows and a full European tour together. They became good friends
You’ve been a band for more than a decade now, what were the craziest or most memorable moments so far?
Christian: There are tons of memorable moments. And I think you wouldn’t be surprised if I say that a lot of them are the typical backstage stories: Getting wasted with that particular booze in this town, dancing naked altogether in a backstage room in that town, sleeping aside of the road in the desert in this country, sleeping on the beach elsewhere...all great stories but also very exchangeable to what other bands could tell you.
Here’s one that is very memorable for me personally, even though it might sound pretty boring to anyone else: We teamed up with three great young bands for our US tour in fall 2006: Kingston Falls, Call To Preserve and Demise Of Eros. The family of CTP's drummer and bassist invited all of the bands to celebrate Thanksgiving with them. We had this great celebration with turkey and everything for more than 20 people. It was an unforgettable evening I guess. I’m still impressed by the hospitality of these people.
What would you like to accomplish in the next 10 years?
Christian: We would love to play a lot of specific shows: Such where the audience is really interested in the music and performance and not that much into scene-conform showmanship. Such where the backstage food is vegetarian and delicious, the beer cold, the promoter a nice guy, the women not only pretty but smart, the other bands interesting and sophisticated, haha. I think we would definitely like to spend most of our future band existence on shows like this.
Thank you so much for your interest and this interview. We would love to come to your country, your town and play a show – please put us on your list! Life is great – enjoy it.
