Interview

Fatalgrind (01/ 2010)

...and no one played the guitar!! Check out this bassguitar thunderclap from Nuremberg / Germany! I have talked with Sabine and she gave me all important details about her unusual Death Metal band. So hold your ears and eyes open for them!

Hi Sabine, how are you? 12 years in music and not on my screen? How is this possible? Are you playing only at Christkind market?
We played the first 6 years with Andabata mainly in Saarland and Rheinland-Pfalz. In the year 2003 we moved to Nuremberg. But we are not only on the road in Bavarian. For example we’ve played already gigs in Berlin. So, there were many possibilities to get to know our music.

Are there no guitars in Nuremberg? Maybe you need some emergency supplies from East Germany!
There a many good guitar players in Nuremberg, but we don’t need one.

Seriousely, what is behind it to play with 2 bassguitars instead of a guitar? Was it maybe something like a workaround?
No, it was nothing like a workaround. Andabata was planed from the first beginning as a band only with basses without guitars. And it works really good. It sounds deep and aggressive, just like it have to.

Who operates it technically? How do you fill the empty spaces? How do you make this sound?
What empty spaces do you mean? We have a lead-bassguitar and a rhythm-bassguitar. Carsten – he is the lead-bass-player – plays with a extreme distortion. My part is the clean rhythm bass. So it works like in any other three man/ woman band with only one guitar, bass and drum.

Give me an short overview about the band!
Andabata was founded in 1997 by Carsten as a one-man-project. 1998 he recorded the first CD “The Door To The Other Side”. Since 2000 we are a complete Band. Between several gigs we recorded in 2002 the second CD “Never Ending War”. As I said before we moved in 2003 to Nuremberg/ Bavaria. Here we had to start from the beginning with new musicians. With the new lineup we published in the year 2006 “Bloody Screams”. Because of the new members the CD is faster and more extreme then the others was before.

Your last album was released in 2006. What happened since then?
Since 2006 we have played many gigs and we were working on new songs. By now we have all songs for a new album written. So we just started with the preparations for it. In a few weeks we will begin with the recordings. We hope the CD will be done in 2010.

Your band has some member changes to list. Is Carsten such a complicated guy that they all left the ship hastily?
I think hastily is the wrong word. Some of the musicians (like me for example) were a long time in the band. There are many different reasons, why they left the band: time, family, health. Only few were kicked out, because of their attitude to the band and their work on it.
Not least there was the move from Saarland to Bavarian (nearly 400 km), so we had to replace all other musicians.

Are permanent staff changings a career brake?
It’s difficult because you have to start every time nearly from the beginning. The new musicians have to learn the songs. So you lose some time in the practice room, before you can go on stage again. And it takes some time until you are really a team again.

Have you got some money left to produce a new album? And will you pay something for the cover this time? Or let you crochet it from a one armed Indian under water with his ass?
From the sale of the last CDs (the first one is nearly sold-out!) and the proceed of the concerts we will finance the next album.
The new cover will be different from the last one. But not because we don’t like the actual one. Every of our CDs has its own style, as you can see in our discography. We like everyone and we’ve got good and bad critics for every. It is just a matter of taste. May be you like our next one.

Seriousely, Who has botched the last? Maybe it is subjective but in a critical point of view it seems it was someone with a big ego!
As I said before it’s really subjective. I like it anyway and I hope even if you don’t like, you will listen to our music and judge afterwards.

How many Doom music of the early days is left in the band? Did Doom become too boring?
I think it’s nothing left from the Doom music. But I still like Doom. It’s not gone because it’s too boring. It was not even a deliberate decision. With every new musician the style of the band changes a little bit. And in the meantime there is a mixture of death and black left.

Tell me about your musical background! Has it changed with the years or are you unimpressed from all the developments in metal around?
No one should be unimpressed from the development. Nothing worse than stagnation. But my main background is the same as a few years ago. Some new bands were added, others I don’t like anymore.

In that merciless overcrowded metal scene; where do you see the band? Is the pressure bigger as in the old days? Or stay you unspoilt of this?
Everything has it’s advantages and it’s disadvantages. Today I think there are more people that likes metal; so there are more potential listeners. But sometimes they are satisfied from the overwhelming number of events, which take place every weekend.
In my opinion pressure is not the right word. When it starts to crush me, I will come to an end.

Are you satisfied with your status or would you like to reach more? How do you see the realistic possibilities for an underground band?
If we would be satisfied there will be stagnation. So we have always new goals to reach: more gigs, bigger gigs or festivals, sell a greater numbers of copies of our CDs…
How I see the possibilities? Mainly you have to be to the right time on the right place.

The press reviewed your music rather different. Can you explain it! I mean they all wanna be impartial!
Can anyone be really impartial? In my opinion not. Music is and was ever a matter of taste. Some of my most loved albums got really bad reviews by the press. In the end everyone has to deicide on his own.

How are you going about criticism?
To tell you the truth nobody is happy about criticism. But we try to remain true to our principles. We play the music we love. We think about every critic and if it’s (in our opinion) justified, we try to change something or to improve our work.

What made ANDABATA to a real neckbreaker in your eyes! What is the special thing with you? Convince me!
First there is our unique sound because of the two bassguitars. Our songs are fast, rough and deep. Listen to our stuff and you will be convinced!

When Carsten played in his other band ENTERA, did he set priorities? Or has he the same ambition in both bands?
Normally Carsten has to answer this question. But in my opinion he has nearly the same ambition in both bands. But Entera has a little advantage, because it’s the “first-born child”.

Last spot is yours!
I invite all metal-heads out there to come to our homepage (http://www.andabata.de/), to listen to our music and come to our concerts. It’s worth it to come again and again, because we will publish our fourth album this year. As soon as it’s finished you can hear some stuff on our page.
Stay metal!