LANFEAR
INTERVIEW, 2003
Ooooh yeah !!! With their 3rd disc "The Art Effect", the German power/prog metal band LANFEAR has created one of the best discs within this genre of the past couple of years. "The Art Effect" has everything needed to satisfy my hunger for quality power and progressive metal, so what would be more logical than to send off some questions to guitarist Markus Ullrich? As said, so done ...

Interview by Claus Jensen
1) Hi there, First up - thanks for creating such a superb disc, it's really one heck of an album, and it's getting a lot of playing time at my place :-) Now, on to the questions; This is your third official disc, and as such the one that can make or break the band. How do you feel about this challenge?

"Hi Claus, nice to meet you "outside the board" and thank you very much for the kind words! I think it's more a kind of debut album because the first two albums are no official label releases, Zero Poems was distributed in Germany six months after the release but there was no big "boss" standing behind. So maybe you have to ask this question after the release of the "official" fifth album :-)"

2) Could you please make a short "run-down" on your first 2 albums, and try to explain them to the uninitiated fans?

"Our first album "Towers" was self-financed and we released it in the beginning of '96, we were very young at that time. The second album "Zero Poems" was recorded in '99 and we sounded very "progressive" at that time, many people had the problem that they found it hard to find a description to that kind of style. But the reactions overall were very good and Z.P. sold well."

3) In my opinion, and obviously also a lot of other Lanfear fans, there have been tremendous changes happening from the "Zero Poems" disc to the new one, "The Art Effect". How would you describe these changes, and what can they be contributed to?

"We had a line up change in 2000 (keys and vocals) so that's one reason why it sounds different. I think we haven't changed the way writing songs, we just tried to sound more heavy with a more "metallic" production and we arranged the songs in a way that they sound not that complex. There're still many elements and trademarks from the first two albums, but you have to listen to the album three or four times to find them. It's more compact, I think."

4) As far as I know, your old singer and your old producer were very important for the bands sound. When booting them from the team, it will bring a huge change to the overall sound. Weren't you scared to start writing a disc, without those 2 on board?

"First of all, our producer wasn't involved in the songwriting process of the last album, but he did a lot of arrangements to achieve this sound. Of course it was hard to work without our singer Stefan, I had to write more songs then I did on the last albums, but when I came up with the first ideas everything turned out well. Our "not so" new keyboarder also wrote two tracks on the new album, Tobias wrote all the lyrics and melodies, maybe there's even more input from the rest on the next album."

5) You made a small but really fanatic fan base with "Zero Poems", and with the dramatic style change on the new disc, you might risk alienating them … have you taken this into consideration, and what is your take on it?

"Of course I was aware of the "die hard" Poems fans. I have to say that most of the people like the new material better but surely there're always fans who prefer the Poems stuff...but they have to live with it. We always write songs for ourselves, it's cool when people like what we do, if not...sorry, there's nothing I can do. Be true to yourself is my "motto", it would be wrong to do a Z.P. Pt. 2 just to satisfy people outside the band."

6) I've seen very diverse comments and reviews on "The Art Effect" - does this surprise you?

"No, as already said I knew there would be diverse comments, I always waited for them over the last few weeks. I have to say that we got over 50 reviews so far and two of them liked the album but prefered Z.P. I can live with that."

7) Luckily it seems like the main media in Germany (Heavy Oder Was, Metal Heart, Rock Hard etc) likes the new disc … and knowing how important the "stamp of approval" from those zines are, I'm sure you're happy about that, right?

"Yes, we're very happy about that. We reached soundcheck rank two out of 80 bands in the H.O.W., a really great thing. The reviews in other German zines are also fantastic and it seems that people who ignored us in the last few years like the new album and have the opinion we improved a lot. That's very important for us because it means a big step forward in the scene."

8) I've personally been having a hard time, trying to describe your disc, but in the review I made of it, I credited it as something like a mixture of Ivanhoe, Evergrey, and Fates Warning … do you agree with this? And, what are the bands / music that influenced you when you wrote this disc?

"I can live with that, I like all the above mentioned bands. I think our music is that hard to describe, because most of us are very fanatic CD collectors and know almost every band around there. It's more easy to create a kind of an own "style" when not just listening to the well known bands. The more influences you have, the more original your own material sounds, that's my personal opinion, of course."

9) The title of the album is a nice little play on word. What's the meaning behind it, and is there an overall concept to the album?

"The title has no deeper sense but it was quite funny to do so and I think it fits to the cover artwork. There's no overall concept, but the title track "The Artefact" is a beginning of a concept in which the songs "Deeper", "Beneath It All" and eventually "Regression" are involved. Maybe our next album will cover the whole spectrum of this concept, but only if everything fits. We don't want to do one of these typical concept albums.
The story:
Five gods are bored and they're searching for a new playground, so they create a / the new world. Over the years they forget that they are gods...the main theme is: "maybe we all are g..."
Maybe the story continues :-)"

10) "The Art Effect" is your first time working with one of the bigger metal labels, as you're now signed to Massacre Records. How did that deal happen, and are you satisfied with it so far?

"We recorded a promo CD with three tracks in the beginning of 2002, sent it to different labels and some of them were interested to do the album with us. Massacre made the best offer, they have a very good distribution and the promotion is also great, so it was an easy decision. We're very satisfied so far."

11) Germany has had a lot of great power/progressive metal bands in the past, such as Ivanhoe, Vanden Plas, Poverty's No Crime and Superior to name a few - all bands that can be compared to you, by the facts that they play progressive metal with lots of melodies and have a cool powerful heavy metal tone to it all. However, none of these bands have actually achieved the big "hit", compared to more "one-styled" bands, such as melodic acts like Scorpions or true power metal bands like Helloween. Do you feel that by playing such a mixtured styled, you're already compromising and limiting your fan-potential?

"I think you're right. Most of the metal fans have a big problem with the definition "progressive" and they file it as "complex, many breaks, intellectual, not easy to get into and so on...". I'm always glad when reviewers write Power Metal instead of Progressive Metal when they describe our style, because that means much more money for us, just joking :-)"

12) I've been visiting your homepage (WWW.THELANFEAR.COM) a couple of times, and I really like it. It looks very professional! How involved in it are you guys? Is the internet an important media for a metal band, or what do you think?

"Our singer Tobias is a multi media designer and did the homepage and we try to always keep it updated. Everyone of us is able to put "news" on the site but it's Tobi who is the man behind it. Internet is very important for us, maybe the best invention in the last 500 years :-) When I look back to our debut-days, with all those (sometimes) handwritten letters, it became very easy to promote a band in the last few years. It's great when you can just surf around and find new music you like!"

13) I've noticed that you hang around the same internet-forum as I do myself :-) Do you think it's a good way to promote your band, by joining discussion groups and such?

"I don't know if it's a good way to promote our band, the PM people have to decide. I personally don't hang around there to promote Lanfear, I'm more interested in what people write on other bands. If you're searching for new Prog/Power Metal bands, the PM board is the first step to them, though I think there were more "insiders" on the board two years ago. I miss their comments."

14) What can we expect will happen with Lanfear within the next year's time? Will you be going on a tour? And if yes, will you come play in Scandinavia - or do we have to go to Germany to see you?

"There're no tour plans until now, Massacre "hopefully" will try to find something for late 2003, it's not that easy and not that cheap. It's also important to find a tour with a good-selling band that plays a similar style. The more people buy our CDs, the bigger is the chance to see us live. I would love to play in Scandinavia, a big dream of me. Thank you for the interview and thanx to all your readers for showing interest. Hey, there's a not-so-new band around here, give them a chance ;-)"

Thank you for doing this interview - I wish you guys all the best of luck, and I hope to see you on tour soon :-)

"Many thanx to you, Claus, CU!!!
Markus"