LE SCRAWL INTERVIEW

 

Potsdam, German, the place LeScrawl came to life with an uncommon mix of GRINDCORE, JAZZ, SKA, BOSSANOVA and other rhythms. They’ve been around for more than 20 years and the drummer and one of the founder member, Peter Weiss, explained a bit more of the band.

1. So firstly thank you to take your time for us. For those unfamiliar with you guys tell us more about the band and its members.

Le Scrawl is from Potsdam in Germany and was founded by Mario and me at the end of 1989. Currently, the band consists of the following members: Mario (bass), Simon (guitar), Uta (keyboard), Arne (saxophone) and I (drums). Since 1993 we have been playing live, and we have released our stuff through a number of national and international labels such as Ecocentric Rec., Live is abuse, Morbid Rec. and Obscene Productions.

2. How do you go about writing songs? Do all the members contribute?

Pretty hard to say; the ideas just come eventually, sometimes a few a day, sometimes none for months – but we don’t really care since there’s no pressure to create new stuff and we can take as much time as we need. When we compose songs, there is not one uniform process. Often, a tune for a fast verse or a chorus makes the beginning and defines certain ideas of style or mood. These are usually Mario’s work; he is the creative engine of the band’s song-writing. And then we start rehearsing up to a moment when the basic structure of a song emerges which sets the pattern for the rest of the song.

3. The band started as a more traditional grind/death metal, what made you decide to blend it with other genres?

I don’t know, it was a creeping process. Initially we played typical Grindcore but gradually blended it with a bunch of different musical styles – not necessarily stuff we’re huge fans of, but music that we had been listening to once in a while, like Ska, Swing, movie soundtracks from the 60s and 70s …, of course, to figure out an extrem combination of musical styles, that’s was an interesting challenge, but nevertheless there’s been no “master plan” behind it – thinks developed step by step – and still do.

4. How would you describe your genre? What bands influenced you?

When we were young there had been punk, and at the end of the 80s and in the early 90s I changed for Grindcore and Death Metal, and then it had been classic bands such as Terrorizer, Napalm Death, Carcass, or Extreme Noise Terror, but also Electro Hippies, Patareni and Active Minds which we were enthusiastic about – not to forget the Disharmonic Orchestra with their extraordinary drumming style.

Well, the whole thing is based on Grindcore and to some extend Death Metal, blended with different musical styles, most notably - I guess – Jazz, Klezmer, Ska, 80`s guitar pop, and so on … In some cases these different influences are mixed into a single song full of harsh breaks, in others it’s just one style – such as Bossa Nova - and all that’s left of Grind core is the vocals. We don’t really care how it’s called – for some it’s “Jazzgrind”, for others “Loungegrind”, “Grindska”, etc.

5. How are the reactions towards your music?

Our first public appearance happened with 4 songs on the “I kill what I eat” compilation on Ecocentric Records in 1993. Though we hadn’t played any live shows at that time we immediately got a huge positive response, letters from all over the world – which is still goin’ on and getting more and more overwhelming. On stage we never really got any really bad reaction, I think people who don’t like it simply leave, or go outside to wait for the next act – of course not everyone is gonna like it – that’s the way it has to be anyways. We’re fine with whatever people want to do if they move or not – even though it’s a great thing to see people dance, stage dive what not …

6. What should we expect from the band in the near future?

After putting out “Snow Blind” we want to play some shows all over Europe, and we start to think about new material.

7. Thanks once again. Any last words, contact, page for merch or anything you want to say.

Thanx for the interview and the interest in our stuff - for more details check out our official site on myspace – and cheers to all the fans of extreme music.