Hi Jens, how are you doing?
I am feeling good, thanks! A bit stressed because of my job and so on but all in all very good.
You and Eric were in the music scene before you started X-Divide, what did the both of you do in the past?
I had a band in the 90s, called „shape“ but we had only two gigs because the other musician went to university and I had to go to the army. I then spent a long time organising electro, Depeche Mode and 80's partys in the area of Cologne and Bonn. From 2005 I wanted to make music again and founded X-Divide together with Eric.
For many years, Eric has a rockabilly band in which he is the singer and lead guitarist, and is actually from the rock 'n' roll scene. He does the contrastprogram with me in the electronic field.
What is that drives you in creating music?
First of all, the fun with making music and the fun with the scene. X-Divide is a balance for our job and if other people like what we do musically it is even more fun and an extra motivation.
How did the both of you meet and how did this lead to the start of X-Divide?
Eric and I worked for the same company and I knew he was making rock 'n' roll music. One day I told him of my past in electronic music and he said he did electro in the 90's and has a little studio in his cellar, which is covered with dust because of the lack of use. I was intruiged and asked him for one of his old songs to listen to. He gave me „i dont care“, which was a very 80's-like song and very catchy. We adapted it a little for modern times and just uploaded it on mp3.de (where it still is for free download :-) ). The song shot to Number 1 in the Dark Charts on mp3.de where it stayed for a long time, and the feedback was great. So we thought „Lets make another song“ and wrote „sympathy“, and then we needed a name. X-Divide is nothing but the name of a picture manipulation program. And that was how the story began.
You just released your first Ep X on Infacted Records, how did you get in contact with the label and what are the first comments on the Ep?
After we have written „Sympathy“ we were searching for a producer because we needed professional support. Because I was always a great NamNamBulu fan and liked the productions of Vasi I wrote to him. Of course he didn't reply haha. So I mailed him and pestered him until I got a reaction. He quite liked „Sympathy“ and we eventually convinced him to be our producer. After a while Torben Schmidt of Infacted recordings noticed us and gave us a deal, with Vasi as our producer. Our debut EP „X“ was released in February 2010 and with „Forever“ we stayed a full 8 weeks in the German Alternative Charts. Although we are old buggers(?) we were newcomers in the field, the EP was accepted very well and the feedback was only positive.
What was the biggest challenge for this ep?
Time coordination because we are all employed.
How did you create the songs, do you work on them together or do both of you the songwriting at home?
Eric writes the songs mainly by himself and then sends the Demos to Vasi. He does the final producing together with Eric and myself.
The EP reminds me at point about Frozen Plasma, which brings me to Vasi Vallis, what is his role in the band, can we consider him as the secret man behind the curtains? What did he do for X-Divide?
Vasi is our producer and of course you hear that in some of the songs. We write our songs in close collaboration with Vasi because he has much more experience in the scene and with composition. Without him we wouldn't be so far yet. We are not only working musically together but in the meantime we also became close friends.
We were surprised to see a NamNamBulu remix on the EP since that band doesn’t exist anymore, what is the story behind this?
As I said earlier I am a great NNB fan myself but unfortunately the band has not existed any more since 2005. We thought it would be great to hear that sound again and we were able to convince Vasi to make a NNB Mix, which many people were happy about after all. At the end of this year our new Album will be released and there will be some surprises.
X-Divide also made a video, which is pretty unusual for a new band, how did this happen and how do you look back on making the video?
The production company for the video (www.destroyproductions.com) are very good friends of mine from Cologne, who have been working for years on professional music videos and TV productions. So it was a done out of friendship, for which we are very grateful! The making of the video was fun but a lot of work. When you hear your own song a hundred times a day and always have to assume the same position, it get annoying. :-) We carried on until deep at night for two days. The bathroom in the video by the way is the bathroom of my parents, and they were fed up with having a half naked Amarantha and half a producing team in their house and occupying the bathroom for hours :-)
At this point you are working on the full length album, how far are you with it?
It's going steadily, but because of our jobs we often lack time. A few songs are still missing but we and Vasi are working hard and end of 2010 it should be realesed.
What progress can we hear on the full length album?
It could arouse memories of a no longer existing band. :-)
The album is filled with great melodies, how do you get inspiration for those?
Well, I myself am a great fan of synth sounds, intruiging melodies and so on. And because we have the melody-god Vasi Vallis on board the whole thing isn't so complicated anymore :-)
What are your goals and expectations for X-Divide?
First of all we are having fun making music and it should carry on like that, and if people like it we are even happier! We will go on trying to make nice Synthpop and animate the public to sing and dance. As it is now, it's more than okay, and we are curious as to what X-Divide will mean for us in the future.
You have done some live shows already with X-Divide, do you have to make adjustments to the songs to play them live and how did the audience react on your concerts?
We have a few special versions which are not like the one on the album, but come across a lot better live. The reactions to our concerts are mostly positive and of course it's easier to have a concert with De/Vision then with Steinkind (both did happen already) because the sound is more similar and the audience more accepting, but until now nobody has shouted „Buh“ or thrown tomatoes at us :-)
We know you are a human jukebox, what are 3 songs that are very important for you and why are they important?
HAHA who says that? :-)
Depeche Mode – People are People. That was the first single I bought myself and was my entry into the dark scene.
Die Onkelz – ich bin so wie ich bin, because I will not pretend to be somebody else and people have to take me as I am or not at all. I am a little bit crazy :-)
Die Hoehner – Viva Colognia... guess why :-)
Any last words for the readers?
Stay healthy, look forward to our album, and I hope we will see each other one day live in Holland! :-)
Thanx to Piet and Lucy for the translation from German to English and Martin Black fort he photo’s.
www./x-divide.de
www.myspace.com/x-divide