Interview with Love Like Blood
Interview with GUNNAR EYSEL and YORCK EYSEL from LOVE LIKE BLOOD taken on the Shadowplay Festival Belgium 2011 by ShinePoisonIvy.
Hi guys, it is very nice to see You here in Belgium as I sadly could not make Your recent show on Wave Gotik Treffen. Your fans have been moved while the news come You are going to perform farewell show on that festival. Can You tell us what were the reasons of the long time of silence?
Gunnar Eysel: After our last album "Chronology of a Love Affair" I was really tired, I told to Yorick "I am gonna give You a call the day I grab my guitar again, while I will be fresh, open minded and ready to be back on the way of doing music". It has been 15 years of being active, touring, recording, and was a bit wasted, thinking I will never touch my guitar again. And than people were asking what have happened to Love Like Blood? We did not split up we just stopped and have been waiting for a moment, but after 10 years...
I always had an idea that some strong vision and energy was behind Your music, so we can assume that You needed to recharged the source a little bit in time? And that is why You needed a break?
GE: Yes, that was the reason, but it was no master plan, there was no plan to split or to stop, it was just a small break which.... last 10 - 12 years by accident. At the end we realised it is done, there is no reason to come back, life has changed so much and we have focused on different things.
Can You tell us than what is the reason of making that two farewell shows, first one on WGT and now here in Belgium on Shadowplay Festival? What has changed?
Yorck Eysel: We have been invited by promoters so we thought it is a good chance to say goodbye, which we never did. We have decided we should take that chance before it is too late - better now than.... later while we will be 50 years old, so now it was a right time to try it and see if we can make it. A lot of people said to us after the show in Leipzig that it was even better than before.
Let’s come back to a year 1988, time You have just started Your carrier, how did You feel than, and how it is different from the way You feel now?
YE: I think big difference is that in the beginning we had only couple songs to play and no choice, and we played as much as possible everywhere. Now we do not have to, we choose what we want to do and we have many songs to choose and it is a big difference. We can play a kind of "best of" the way the fans would like to hear and it feels really good to make a selection of songs after all that albums.
You mean it is the way You decide about a set list for the shows?
GE: You know if You are active in the industry You should play songs from the new album to promote it, you always promote new album, and now we do not have to do it, just to play what people would like to hear. We can’t play all of them,but we can pick the best of each album and it makes a lot of fun.
There is always a question of industry and an artist independence, but I always saw you as a quite independent individuals, you have switch labels so many times...
YE: Yeah right, but the best fun it was doing it yourself.
GE: In 1988 no one in Germany was selling that kind of music, there was no label to make it,so we had to do it on our own, and suddenly by surprise they started to noticed us.
Hi guys, it is very nice to see You here in Belgium as I sadly could not make Your recent show on Wave Gotik Treffen. Your fans have been moved while the news come You are going to perform farewell show on that festival. Can You tell us what were the reasons of the long time of silence?
Gunnar Eysel: After our last album "Chronology of a Love Affair" I was really tired, I told to Yorick "I am gonna give You a call the day I grab my guitar again, while I will be fresh, open minded and ready to be back on the way of doing music". It has been 15 years of being active, touring, recording, and was a bit wasted, thinking I will never touch my guitar again. And than people were asking what have happened to Love Like Blood? We did not split up we just stopped and have been waiting for a moment, but after 10 years...
I always had an idea that some strong vision and energy was behind Your music, so we can assume that You needed to recharged the source a little bit in time? And that is why You needed a break?
GE: Yes, that was the reason, but it was no master plan, there was no plan to split or to stop, it was just a small break which.... last 10 - 12 years by accident. At the end we realised it is done, there is no reason to come back, life has changed so much and we have focused on different things.
Can You tell us than what is the reason of making that two farewell shows, first one on WGT and now here in Belgium on Shadowplay Festival? What has changed?
Yorck Eysel: We have been invited by promoters so we thought it is a good chance to say goodbye, which we never did. We have decided we should take that chance before it is too late - better now than.... later while we will be 50 years old, so now it was a right time to try it and see if we can make it. A lot of people said to us after the show in Leipzig that it was even better than before.
Let’s come back to a year 1988, time You have just started Your carrier, how did You feel than, and how it is different from the way You feel now?
YE: I think big difference is that in the beginning we had only couple songs to play and no choice, and we played as much as possible everywhere. Now we do not have to, we choose what we want to do and we have many songs to choose and it is a big difference. We can play a kind of "best of" the way the fans would like to hear and it feels really good to make a selection of songs after all that albums.
You mean it is the way You decide about a set list for the shows?
GE: You know if You are active in the industry You should play songs from the new album to promote it, you always promote new album, and now we do not have to do it, just to play what people would like to hear. We can’t play all of them,but we can pick the best of each album and it makes a lot of fun.
There is always a question of industry and an artist independence, but I always saw you as a quite independent individuals, you have switch labels so many times...
YE: Yeah right, but the best fun it was doing it yourself.
GE: In 1988 no one in Germany was selling that kind of music, there was no label to make it,so we had to do it on our own, and suddenly by surprise they started to noticed us.
You had to work hard to get recognition. What would you change if you had a chance to be back in time? Anything?
YE: If we got a chance to be back in time we would like to start our music with the guys we are playing now. We know them now for a couple of years, now we even have a female singer. It is great, as we always had a female vocals on the records, and it was really hard to get a singer that time and to make a tour, now it is pretty easy. But it was not easy to find right people back in time.
Talking about right people - I was just about to ask You how it is to work together as you are brothers, does it make all thing easier or just opposite?
YE: I can´t really tell you as I can´t switch to a situation of not being his brother (laugh), but I think it makes no difference even if we were not brothers. Now it is easier to cooperate for us even with the musicians who are not a part of our family.
Have you ever been thinking about making solo project?
GE: No, me no. (laugh)
YE: At one point I was thinking would be nice to try these minimalistic pop music with some guys from Silke Bischoff, but it never have happened...
Does it happened to you these days to have that kind of creative flow and to create something new, new music just for yourselfs?
YE: These days we were completely concentrate on the songs we are about to play live.
GE: The problem is that you are getting hungry again, all that rehearsals, trying something new just in general, but I really stopped to do it on propose some time ago, we do not want to get lost, so we are now mainly focused on the music we are about to play live on our farewell shows, it was always like these, where we used to work on an album we just worked on an album, we always had a goals to work out in the past. It is the same now. We are busy in our real live.
Gunnar honestly, shall we understand you had not touch guitar like 10 years, not even once?
GE: You have to believe me the only thing I was playing was the Rock Band on the PlayStation...(laugh)
I think I have heard that story from the other bands too...it is quite addictive? So while You have decided it is a break it was a true break with the music making for both of you?
GE: Yes, exactly, I just played very rarely on my guitar.
YE: And I did only sing on my Mother birthday... but I better not tell you what.
YE: If we got a chance to be back in time we would like to start our music with the guys we are playing now. We know them now for a couple of years, now we even have a female singer. It is great, as we always had a female vocals on the records, and it was really hard to get a singer that time and to make a tour, now it is pretty easy. But it was not easy to find right people back in time.
Talking about right people - I was just about to ask You how it is to work together as you are brothers, does it make all thing easier or just opposite?
YE: I can´t really tell you as I can´t switch to a situation of not being his brother (laugh), but I think it makes no difference even if we were not brothers. Now it is easier to cooperate for us even with the musicians who are not a part of our family.
Have you ever been thinking about making solo project?
GE: No, me no. (laugh)
YE: At one point I was thinking would be nice to try these minimalistic pop music with some guys from Silke Bischoff, but it never have happened...
Does it happened to you these days to have that kind of creative flow and to create something new, new music just for yourselfs?
YE: These days we were completely concentrate on the songs we are about to play live.
GE: The problem is that you are getting hungry again, all that rehearsals, trying something new just in general, but I really stopped to do it on propose some time ago, we do not want to get lost, so we are now mainly focused on the music we are about to play live on our farewell shows, it was always like these, where we used to work on an album we just worked on an album, we always had a goals to work out in the past. It is the same now. We are busy in our real live.
Gunnar honestly, shall we understand you had not touch guitar like 10 years, not even once?
GE: You have to believe me the only thing I was playing was the Rock Band on the PlayStation...(laugh)
I think I have heard that story from the other bands too...it is quite addictive? So while You have decided it is a break it was a true break with the music making for both of you?
GE: Yes, exactly, I just played very rarely on my guitar.
YE: And I did only sing on my Mother birthday... but I better not tell you what.
So now you have decided to break the silence and to make two farewell shows. Is it some kind of come back but only for that final moments?
GE: Yes it is something we missed, to say goodbye to people, and it is great pleasure to get that opportunity now. It is also tricky to handle all that awesome feed back. We are just happy to do it right now.
How was in on the WGT? How does it feel to hit the stage after all that years?
YE: Going there on stage was like in the old days, like I did not noticed it was 10 years break, like the last time was only yesterday...
Had You got a chance to interact with your fans?
YE: Not really, no. We had been asked to make a signing session but it was planned for the next day, so we could not make it, if it was the same day perhaps we´d have done it.
You put your fans in very hard conditions, coming back but only for a last time, I would expect even some hysterical reactions...
YE: No no, no one was crying...
GE: I think people are really glad to see us on stage, and my impression from Leipzig is that they really enjoyed it, and honestly that is all what Love Like Blood is. On stage our music has influence, and even some people who did not know Love Like Blood did enjoy it.
They did not know you as there was a long gap eventually, but did you also enjoy the show?
GE: Yes I did, believe me, that is what is tragic about it, it makes so much fun to do it, and we would never expect such a warm welcome from the audience. It makes it hard to say goodbye no more, it is honestly difficult.
You used to describe yourself in the past as a part of goth scene playing goth music, have you been watching the scene even in times of being inactive as a band? You know what is happening?
GE: Yes, right. It is pretty much death these days, isn’t it?
Well it depends what band you would like to include into the scene eventually... we will not talk about The Sisters will we?...
GE: No, no.....but generally I think time changed exteamly.
YE: I have noticed that last 10 years for the bands we used to be following was just getting worse and worse. They still get worse and it is really disappointing. Live shows are not the way we remember them back than 15-20 years ago... what has happened.
GE: And there are no new bands coming.
Have you seen Fields of the Nephilim show last night?
GE: It was my second time, I saw them 1989 in their first tour in Germany while they had been supporting New Model Army. I even talked to the sound engineer - they still got the same guy who did that tour than. I still remember small club in Germany, I was a big New Model Army fan 17 years old perhaps, and than Fields of the Nephilim come, you could not see even one person it was so much smoke, just shades. It was so dark, and all that songs from Dawnrazor... it was awesome.
Ach so they got you than - You did a cover of the Fields of the Nephilim song "Love under will". Do you enjoy it in some special way or it was joust a spontaneous choice, why that one?
GE: That time we had a concept of the album and while it come to Fields of the Nephilim which surly had to be on that album it was the only song right for us. Many people complained that time that we have change it a bit, but it was our way of making something out of that song our way, to give it a little touch of Love Like Blood.
YE: We have been thinking about making Trees Come Down, but it seems more reasonable to make Love Under Will, it has better qualifications.
GE: Yes it is something we missed, to say goodbye to people, and it is great pleasure to get that opportunity now. It is also tricky to handle all that awesome feed back. We are just happy to do it right now.
How was in on the WGT? How does it feel to hit the stage after all that years?
YE: Going there on stage was like in the old days, like I did not noticed it was 10 years break, like the last time was only yesterday...
Had You got a chance to interact with your fans?
YE: Not really, no. We had been asked to make a signing session but it was planned for the next day, so we could not make it, if it was the same day perhaps we´d have done it.
You put your fans in very hard conditions, coming back but only for a last time, I would expect even some hysterical reactions...
YE: No no, no one was crying...
GE: I think people are really glad to see us on stage, and my impression from Leipzig is that they really enjoyed it, and honestly that is all what Love Like Blood is. On stage our music has influence, and even some people who did not know Love Like Blood did enjoy it.
They did not know you as there was a long gap eventually, but did you also enjoy the show?
GE: Yes I did, believe me, that is what is tragic about it, it makes so much fun to do it, and we would never expect such a warm welcome from the audience. It makes it hard to say goodbye no more, it is honestly difficult.
You used to describe yourself in the past as a part of goth scene playing goth music, have you been watching the scene even in times of being inactive as a band? You know what is happening?
GE: Yes, right. It is pretty much death these days, isn’t it?
Well it depends what band you would like to include into the scene eventually... we will not talk about The Sisters will we?...
GE: No, no.....but generally I think time changed exteamly.
YE: I have noticed that last 10 years for the bands we used to be following was just getting worse and worse. They still get worse and it is really disappointing. Live shows are not the way we remember them back than 15-20 years ago... what has happened.
GE: And there are no new bands coming.
Have you seen Fields of the Nephilim show last night?
GE: It was my second time, I saw them 1989 in their first tour in Germany while they had been supporting New Model Army. I even talked to the sound engineer - they still got the same guy who did that tour than. I still remember small club in Germany, I was a big New Model Army fan 17 years old perhaps, and than Fields of the Nephilim come, you could not see even one person it was so much smoke, just shades. It was so dark, and all that songs from Dawnrazor... it was awesome.
Ach so they got you than - You did a cover of the Fields of the Nephilim song "Love under will". Do you enjoy it in some special way or it was joust a spontaneous choice, why that one?
GE: That time we had a concept of the album and while it come to Fields of the Nephilim which surly had to be on that album it was the only song right for us. Many people complained that time that we have change it a bit, but it was our way of making something out of that song our way, to give it a little touch of Love Like Blood.
YE: We have been thinking about making Trees Come Down, but it seems more reasonable to make Love Under Will, it has better qualifications.
Thank You for sharing the story. Coming back to Love like Blood - is there any chance for the fans who sadly did not had a chance to see you on WGT and are not here tonight to get DVD with your live gig or something?
GE: We talked about it, but the time was to short to organise recording of the concert, and we did not know how the venue might look like. It is always a question of finances, and we would not make any compromises while it comes to our productions. Decent quality is our standard, and we do not want to minimalize anything.
YE: On one hand it is a shame we did not have any live album or DVD, on the other hand we are not sure if it is a right venue for the live DVD, it has to be chosen in advance, and our own show, on a festival it would not work.
Have you heard about the final live DVD of Theatre of Tragedy? They did not took money from label, as far as I noticed it was self project and they collect money from the fans.
YE: Yes we know them, it is a nice idea, even if it is no good for the label but it is good for the fans.
I have been visiting your regular web side and it has not been update since 2004, you had a Facebook page though, is it your main channel of communication now? Any updates? pictures of the last shows, links?
GE: We did not update regular page as it was not so much happening. Yes we have a plan to make an archive mainly for the fans, we just have to find some time to do it. We would like to have it properly re-designed and set it up there for... forever. (laugh) Our priorities are much changed now we are focused on the real live more, but master plan is to do it someday in the future.
YE: Everyones problem that days is not enough time, but we hope to do it.
You have been visiting Poland a few times...
YE: Yes and we even did our video there!
There is a festival of goth music called Castle Party in Poland, you also have some fans there and even some polish fan web side of Love Like Blood which have been updated with pictures of your show at WGT, is there any chance we can have a last show, special goodbye also in Poland?
YE: We have heard about Castle Party, it look like a great place to play.
GE: We used to be in talks some time ago with some Polish promoter about the show, we always thought it would be a great pleasure to play in Poland as the audience was always very spontaneous. We used to have great time there in the past...
It would be very nice idea just do it for the people who did not had a chance to see you in the past, let´s hope for it. What would be your last massage to the fans before your final show here on Shadowplay Festival, and what can we expect from the set list?
GE: We are pleased with all that warm feed back, all nice reactions we got. We never expected it after so many years. We hope they might enjoy that few last shows we are doing. We would like to thank for all the support we got from fans now and back in the past. And there might be some surprises on the set list obviously! We will do Joy Division cover as well as tomorrow here is Peter Hook playing here on Shadowplay.
YE: We also got a special guest on stage tonight which we are very pleased to announce. We got our initial vocalist with us who will be performing with us two songs which he wrote the lyrics for. And we have first time three guitars on stage so it is going to be good!
Lovely! Can´t wait to see your show than, thank You for the interview indeed and all best with the show.
LOVE LIKE BLOOD Setlist
***********************************
Shadowplay Festival 2011
23, July 2011 - Kortrijk, Belgium
***********************************
The Everlasting Dream
Walking In Demimondes
Out Of Sight
Within The Realm Of A Dying Sun
Fallacious World
Night Is Young
Johannesburg *
Doomsday *
Phrases
Ylene
Dear Catherine
Kiss & Tell
Heroes
---------------------------------
A Means To An End *
Liberation
Don't Leave Me
Remember
***********************************
* Featuring Gonzo, the initial singer of Love Like Blood.
Official LOVE LIKE BLOOD site www.facebook.com/LLBofficial
GE: We talked about it, but the time was to short to organise recording of the concert, and we did not know how the venue might look like. It is always a question of finances, and we would not make any compromises while it comes to our productions. Decent quality is our standard, and we do not want to minimalize anything.
YE: On one hand it is a shame we did not have any live album or DVD, on the other hand we are not sure if it is a right venue for the live DVD, it has to be chosen in advance, and our own show, on a festival it would not work.
Have you heard about the final live DVD of Theatre of Tragedy? They did not took money from label, as far as I noticed it was self project and they collect money from the fans.
YE: Yes we know them, it is a nice idea, even if it is no good for the label but it is good for the fans.
I have been visiting your regular web side and it has not been update since 2004, you had a Facebook page though, is it your main channel of communication now? Any updates? pictures of the last shows, links?
GE: We did not update regular page as it was not so much happening. Yes we have a plan to make an archive mainly for the fans, we just have to find some time to do it. We would like to have it properly re-designed and set it up there for... forever. (laugh) Our priorities are much changed now we are focused on the real live more, but master plan is to do it someday in the future.
YE: Everyones problem that days is not enough time, but we hope to do it.
You have been visiting Poland a few times...
YE: Yes and we even did our video there!
There is a festival of goth music called Castle Party in Poland, you also have some fans there and even some polish fan web side of Love Like Blood which have been updated with pictures of your show at WGT, is there any chance we can have a last show, special goodbye also in Poland?
YE: We have heard about Castle Party, it look like a great place to play.
GE: We used to be in talks some time ago with some Polish promoter about the show, we always thought it would be a great pleasure to play in Poland as the audience was always very spontaneous. We used to have great time there in the past...
It would be very nice idea just do it for the people who did not had a chance to see you in the past, let´s hope for it. What would be your last massage to the fans before your final show here on Shadowplay Festival, and what can we expect from the set list?
GE: We are pleased with all that warm feed back, all nice reactions we got. We never expected it after so many years. We hope they might enjoy that few last shows we are doing. We would like to thank for all the support we got from fans now and back in the past. And there might be some surprises on the set list obviously! We will do Joy Division cover as well as tomorrow here is Peter Hook playing here on Shadowplay.
YE: We also got a special guest on stage tonight which we are very pleased to announce. We got our initial vocalist with us who will be performing with us two songs which he wrote the lyrics for. And we have first time three guitars on stage so it is going to be good!
Lovely! Can´t wait to see your show than, thank You for the interview indeed and all best with the show.
LOVE LIKE BLOOD Setlist
***********************************
Shadowplay Festival 2011
23, July 2011 - Kortrijk, Belgium
***********************************
The Everlasting Dream
Walking In Demimondes
Out Of Sight
Within The Realm Of A Dying Sun
Fallacious World
Night Is Young
Johannesburg *
Doomsday *
Phrases
Ylene
Dear Catherine
Kiss & Tell
Heroes
---------------------------------
A Means To An End *
Liberation
Don't Leave Me
Remember
***********************************
* Featuring Gonzo, the initial singer of Love Like Blood.
Official LOVE LIKE BLOOD site www.facebook.com/LLBofficial
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Other articles:
- Shadowplay Festival 2011 - 2011-08-04 (Live reports)
