Weiter geht es mit unserem Format und dieses Mal haben sich die Mitglieder der Schweizer Band KASSOGTHA unseren Fragen gestellt. Die junge, aufstrebende Band hat im Winter 2019 mit so namenhaften Künstlern wie Sirenia oder Leaves‘ Eyes die „Female Metal Voices Tour“ bestritten. Sie präsentierten dem Publikum ihren energiegeladenen Melodic Death Metal und konnten sicherlich einige Fans dazugewinnen. Wir wollten die Band noch ein wenig näher kennenlernen und haben ihnen auf den Zahn gefühlt.
1. How did you develop your band name and logo?
Morty: Kassogtha is a « great old one » from the H.P. Lovecraft fantastic universe, it’s a cosmic horrifying monster. The name came when we decided we should change our old one (Deus Ex Machina) because it was overused. Plus, I consider myself a geek (if that word means anything at all) so, having a name related to fantasy was a sort of tribute to those universes that offered and inspired me so much.
Steph: We decided to change our name when Dylan and Martin joined us in late 2018. At that time, we were also writing new songs and we thought it was the right moment to do it. As I am a graphic designer, I developed the logotype myself. We wanted to have something simple but elegant, including our symbol which is a kind of a trademark now.
2. What makes a song suitable for your album? Which songs will not make it onto your album?
Morty: It’s hard to say. We are not the kind of band that write 20 to 30 songs for an album and then make a selection of 10 that are going to make it to it. The selection comes quite earlier in the writing process and we tend to ditch weaker songs quickly when writing. Plus, we try to write songs for an album with the whole thing in mind, as we try to make « concept album » with some kind of coherence and progression between all the songs.
Steph: With years and experience it’s easier to know if a song is “Kassogtha” or not because we begin to have our own sound, our own style. Now we realize very quickly whether a song enters our universe or not.
3. What is a must-have for your live shows?
Morty: We are not difficult. A proper stage and PA, some food, a couple of beers and we are happy.
4. Do you pursue an objective with your music?
Morty: Yes, we’d love to make a living from the music. We know it’s hard be we are putting all our resources and energy in this, so… it might happen someday !
Steph: It’s also very important for us to evolve over the years. We often leave our comfort zone and try to surpass ourselves. It’s very stimulating and gives interesting results.
5. Where do you see yourselves within the metal scene?
Morty: Thought one… We don’t see ourselves that much a part of the metal scene, and to be honest I don’t know if there is a metal scene at all. I mean, metal is such vast and various. We are not even able to put a genre on our band so considering us part a of a scene is difficult.
6. What annoys you the most about the music business?
Steph: I don’t know if we’re in the music business enough to answer that. But I would say the buy-on system for touring is really a weird thing. I don’t see the point when, for example, a band who plays bad music is allowed to tour with famous bands just because they paid for it. It sucks for everybody. And I don’t see the point neither when it’s a great band who deserves to be there.
7. Who are your idols?
Steph: The cool thing about the band is that we all have different influences. On my side, the bands that made me want to play music are Rammstein, Marilyn Manson, Slipknot and Chimaira (among many others…) and it’s still my favorite artists today. But recently I discovered more “proggy” bands like Soen or Leprous, and I really like them too.
Morty: I don’t think I have idols to be honest. I do have artists I admire tho. Joe Duplantier (Gojira), Robb Flynn (Machine Head) and James Hetfield (Metallica) were huge influences for me and are definitely part of them.
8. How do you develop your lyrics?
Steph: I write all the lyrics and it’s very different every time. For the first album, it was very difficult to express my feelings openly, so I decided to create a character and make it live through the 9 songs of the album. For the EP, I just wrote what I had in mind at the moment and a little bit more directly than my previous lyrics. For the next album, I would like to deepen this process and write what I have in mind and feel inside without barriers, but I have to say that is really difficult. I think the result will be interesting!
9. If anything was possible – what would your ultimate music video look like?
Morty: A kick-ass 10 minutes short film, with beautiful images and an innovating story telling.
10. Which band(s) do you deem to be over-/underrated at the moment? Why?
Morty: We have no opinion on this.
11. What does your rehearsal room look like ?
Morty: It’s quite big and not clean, we are not very messy. It’s full of music instrument and gear. We’re gear geeks. We wanna build some studio facilities as well in the near future.
12. When do you have the most/best ideas for new songs?
Morty: If we knew we would try to provoke such situation every time ! Unfortunately we don’t. It can happens on very different time and situation such as at work, doing nothing, sleeping, driving or whatever… I tend to think I’m more creative when sad, but it sucks to be sad. Very recently, I went on holiday for a weekend, and I realized having nothing to think about for 3 to 4 days helps me a lot to put me in a creative state of mind.
Steph: Sometimes an event (positive or not) can inspire some good lyrics.
13. What are your nightmares made of?
Steph: I don’t want to answer these kind of questions anymore, because last time I did the worst nightmare came true a few weeks later.
Schwermetallvergiftung 