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PORTFOLIO: IN EXTREMO BERLIN. Bagpipes in rock´n´roll are no news, Bon Scott for instance, the vivacious singer of AC / DC, blew a fierce bagpipe in "It´s A Long Way To The Top” from 1976. The way though german history rockers In Extremo combine straight hard rock with medieval elements is indeed brandnew. Frontman Das Letzte Einhorn [The Last Unicorn] remembers: "In the early nineties we started just with shawns, bagpipes and flutes. Then we got the rock musicians in at a time when others weren´t even thinking about medieval rock.” By now a whole new scene of history rockers has been established in Germany, bands like Subway To Sally, The Inchtabokatables and Tanzwut [dance fury] mix ancient with modern music and enjoy an ever growing response. Most of them started out on medieval markets that are popular all over Europe. Here artisans show old crafts made with ancient tools, there are medieval bathhouses, food prepared using old recipes and old music played by minstrels and bandsmen. To this day there a two versions of In Extremo, one plays traditional acoustic instruments for visitors of selected medieval markets, the other has three more members and plays a fully fledged rock show complete with fire eating frontman, exploding pyros, sword fights, a gallows pole and colourful costumes. Many of their songs are sung in ancient languages like old-Latin, old-German and old-Norwegian. "One generation taught the songs to the next generation, later on they were written down”, knows Das Letzte Einhorn. "Our oldest song dates back to the ninth century. We play it like it has always been played, we just added rock instruments to it.” "I always wanted to mix music and circus”, Yellow Pfeiffer [piper] says, responsible for bagpipe, shawn, hurdy gurdy and always dressed in yellow, like his stage name says. "Traditional rock shows bore me to death.” It was their show that attracted Doro Peters, their manager of today, to the septett. "The first time I saw them was in November ´97. What convinced me was the reaction of the audience, everywhere In Extremo plays, the audience erupts. Their mixture of show and music never fails to bring the house down”, she beams. Peters convinced Berlin based indie label Vielklang to sign In Extremo and release "Weckt Die Toten” [Wake Up The Dead] in 1998. The album caused raving reviews in the german rock press and naturally attracted major labels. Vielklang is specialised in contracting their artists to majors, in the case of In Extremo they choose Mercury as partner for national release. Their latest album "Verehrt und Angespien” [Honoured And Spat At] promptly shot up the german album charts to number eleven. Matthias Raschkewitz, rock buyer of Media Markt in Minden, Westfalen [Westfalia] was quite pleased with the sales of the rocking knights: "Until now we´ve sold about 300 copies, that´s the same amount we sold of the new Clapton record. I predict a great future for this band, that many see as Rammstein with bagpipes.” Raschkewitz, a part time concert promotor, set up a concert with In Extremo in his home town and was pleased once again: "800 people showed up, the club was filled to the brim”, he fondly reminisces. The band is booked by Extratours, here too there are nothing but smiling faces to be seen. "This year we play the biggest german festivals like Rock am Ring and Rock im Park”, enthuses co-owner Andreas Walser. "They are totally easy to handle, there are no rock star allures at all. In addition to the festivals they play 70 concerts that attract about 1.000 fans each. The number of dates is too high though, next year we gonna play less gigs in bigger halls for higher salaries.” Although the band was not yet able to make it on to the play list of the hit orientated german radio, some stations are having fun with "Verehrt und Angespien”. Aditya Sharma, programmer of Potsdam based youth broadcaster Radio Fritz, is among them: "We get many requests for In Extremo, they are very popular specially in the former East Germany. I see them as a band with a unique concept and large potential. They could be successful in the US too, I´m sure Americans have never seen a band like this.” This spring In Extremo ventured to the United States for the first time. Here indie Metal Blade is taking care of the new record. The band played three shows, one in Los Angeles, one at South By Southwest and one in New Jersey. "I saw the one in LA”, remembers Metal Blade publicist Martin Bailey, "the audience was completely baffled. Once people got over the fact that they´re singing in german, they really took to them. In Extremo are so definitely different from the other metal bands round here, that after a lot of plugging we got them on MTV news.” |
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by Henning Richter |