Into the hand of Doom

Bohren & Der Club of Gore play wonderful atmospheric slow/horror jazz, taking their love of extreme metal into a jazz format. They have been together since 1992 and have released 5 full-length albums so far, including the critical acclaimed Black earth, which landed them a USA deal with Mike Patton’s Label Ipecac. They have just released a new album Geisterfaust which strips their sound down and slows their material down even futher and it’s one of my highlights of this year. I reviewed it here. Christoph Clöser (sax, piano, Rhodes) and Morten Gass(piano , fender Rhodes piano, Mellotron) kindly agreed to give me an email interview.

m[m] I believe you were all in extreme metal bands before Bohren, what made you want to change to jazz?
Christoph Clöser First of all the music that we play is not real jazz. It just sounds a bit that way because we use a lot of these classic jazz instruments. So just lets say that we don’t play metal, but the music itself is still extreme. For us it was no big deal, we still got the same dark and evil feeling as we played death metal in those old days. But to answer the question: we liked the sound of jazz instruments and want to create music that was not a rip off our favourite bands.

m[m] Can you give us any details of the early death metal bands? Did you ever release anything?
Morten Gass Macabre Farmhouse was an instrumental death metal project by Thorsten and me. A cross between Gore and Autopsy. Chronical Diaroeha did funny grindcore and released 2 7" ep's (one on Of The Disk Records, who did the first Morbid Angel 7"). Plus to albums on early Nuclear Blast Records. The first Bohren Demo (Langspielkassette) sounded like a cross of Abscess and early Venom.

m[m] One of the tracks off your first album is called Die Fulci Nummer (The Fulci Number) - I'm a big fan of Lucio Fulci films - have you got a favourite of his movie’s? Any other favourite Horror movies?
Morten Gass My favourite Fulci's are: The Beyond followed by Zombie Flesheaters and City of the Living Dead. I just like older horror movies. Stuff by Mario Bava, Dario Argento etc. From the 60's and 70's.

m[m] The new album is much more stripped down sound than Black earth, was this a conscious decision or did it just develop that way?
Christoph Clöser It was a conscious decision. We didn't want to do another Black Earth style album.

m[m] How long was the writing process for this album? And how did you go about constructing the songs?
Christoph Clöser one year for writing,and 8 month for recording.

m[m] Did you feel any pressure to do another album similar to Black Earth, since it was so well received?
Christoph Clöser Of course not. We still are a band with only one aim, which is to create the music we like and we want listen to.

m[m] The new album is based around a hand – each trackname after a finger - how did this idea come about?
Christoph Clöser Geisterfaust means Ghostfist in English and we got five songs for the record. It just fits perfectly.

m[m] what is the plant/flower on the front cover of the album and what is the significance of it?
Christoph Clöser This flower is innocent, as innocent as our music. It is the flower of romantic melodies, of lovely chords and peaceful rhythm. It is the flower of Bohren & Der Club Of Gore.

m[m] A choir appears on the track Zeigefinger off your new album, how did this come about?
Christoph Clöser We didn’t want any synthesisers or samples on our new cd, so we were looking for alternatives. Someone introduced us to this fine housewife’s choir and these housewives where aged between 52 and 76, and had been so kind to sing along with us.

m[m] What did you Housewife's choir think to your music?
Morten Gass They really enjoyed the singing part's. After they received the finished album, they were totally moved. Some really cried on hearing Zeigefinger.

m[m] You made a video for a track off Black Earth, any thoughts of doing one for a track off Geisterfaust?
Christoph Clöser No. It’s sad but on German TV, there’s no more room for real underground stuff. By the way the Geisterfaust songs are too long for videos. Much too expensive, you know...

m[m] Your early albums have been difficult to get hold of - are there any plans to reissue them?
Christoph Clöser These albums are still in print. Since 1st of July, you can order the whole Bohren-backcatalogue from our homepage

m[m] Your music has a cinematic air to it, would you like to do some soundtrack work? Have you ever been offered any?
Christoph Clöser We have been offered a lot of soundtrack work. In the past the songs from our albums where sometimes used in movies (not in blockbusters 'till now, it’s a pity). But we are not interested that much in doing a whole special soundtrack for a movie because of the lack of musical freedom. There are too many compromises to be made with the director.

m[m] You mentioned that some of your song's have been used in movies, what songs where used and in which movies?
Morten Gass Just some underground movies by students. I’m not quite sure about the songs, sorry.

m[m] I’ve heard your concerts in the past are very atmospheric, with you all dressed in black and very minimal lighting, what did you do for the stage show supporting the new album?
Christoph Clöser Nothing new, exactly the same.

m[m] You recently played live with Isis, how did you go down with a metal audience?
Christoph Clöser Fantastic. But it’s not fair to call Isis a metal audience band. They got so much more to offer and it was an honour to play with this guys.

m[m] How did you end up signing with Mike Patton’s Ipecac label?
Christoph Clöser One day Patton asked us via email if we are interested of being part of his Ipecac family, because he was a big fan of our music.

m[m] Since signing to Ipecac, have you had any offers to tour the USA?
Morten Gass Well, there was no offering like: "we pay you guys everything you want, just pleeeeassse come over and play..." But we are thinking about touring the USA (sooner or later).

m[m] Do any of you have any other musical projects?
Christoph Clöser No.

m[m] So what’s next? Any more touring, etc?
Christoph Clöser In September we play a gig in Moscow, in November and December we play another six gigs and after that we wait for Christmas eve.

Thanks to Christoph Clöser and Morten Gass for the interview and Jutta from Wonder records for setting up the interview and supplying the photos.The band's site is here