Kruger Interview is up 6/8/2010
1.For those of us new to Kruger tell us a bit about the band?
Hmh, band biography… It’s been so long that it’s hard to remember everything, especially since you’re close to senility as i am… Kruger started in 2001 with the wish to mix Breach and Entombed. Now it its 10th year, the band hasn’t moved that much for the original aim, right ? Just released a few album and made a couple hundreds shows in the meantime !
2. Your new release "For death, glory and the end of the world" has a lot of Post Hardcore element Neurosis, Isis and Mastodon in sound and style. I was reading older material is different how so?
First album (2002) was much more rock orientated (a bit Clutchesque), the second (2005) was more close to this post-whatever scene (Neurosis, Cult of Luna…), and the two latest albums (2007 and this year) are more frontal. Still this « Breach » dark and epic spirit , but with a more brutal approach…
3. This is your 2nd release with Listenable are you happy with label and it seems there doing a major push in North American now you must be pleased with this?
Nice to hear that ! Listenable are doing such a bunch of work on a small band like we are that we’ve never even thought of inspecting the job they’re doing… They are more than just a record label to us : we love them. Cheesy, uh ?
4. Is there a running theme on "For death, glory and the end of the world" ?
Nope. People always think we are a conceptual band, which is always very funny – i wish we split up before becoming one ! Topics in the lyrics are more like jokes than themes. We just had them published on our website, so people can understand what a bunch of idiots we are !...
5. What are some of the bands that are impressing Kruger or in you mp3 or CD player right now?
Speaking for myself, i am in a dreadful regressive period (like listening to old Depeche Mode albums or re-discovering the crossover shit i was listening 20 years ago !... I am into Electric Boys these days –scary, uh ?).
Latest good suprises have been Quest for Fire (a canadian psyche-stoner band on Tee Pee), the new Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster, Converge’s « axe to fall », and always Eluvium, an ambient act that suits baths perfectly ! I guess the other guys would have totally different tunes to promote, though, our tastes are radically different !
6. Being a metal band from Switzerland what the scene like I really only know 2 bands from there Celtic Frost and Samael . Both are very original and are you is it something in the water there???
Small country, no market, and valuable godfathers (Celtic Frost, The Young Gods, Knut…) : Switzerland history of independent music has always been a fight to go abroad, since you can’t do anything within the territory, i guess this has produced good bands ! I would quote Ventura, Sludge, Kehlvin, Nostromo, Mumakil for ex.
7. Your website is very impressive tell us about it http://www.kruger.ch/?
Impressive ? Cool ! It’s a friend who designed it for ridiculous money (we’re lucky enough to have plenty of friends which don’t like money, without them we wouldn’t ever be here !). I like the totally psychedelic « welcome to my sect » atmosphere !
8. Do you feel that the modern digital age Myspace, File Sharing etc are hurting the indie scene or is it helping??? there are so many bands now that dont take time to grow before they get there music out to world?
Tricky question… I’m owning a CD/LP distribution company myself, and can see the internet thing is running the business, for both bands and labels… On the other hand, the greedy bastards who have been making thousands on the bands these past two decades are put back where they belong, and the bands can access visibility much easier. Which is also a bad point, as there’s no more « filter » : i’ve never seen so many crappy bands getting that much visibility !
9. Will Kruger be creating any videos or a DVD release now that you have 4 albums of material?
Ha ! A DVD ? We actually shot a handful live videos that are available on our website, but expecting people to pay to see them would be a pathetic mistake ! …
10. Have you seen you audience changes from last CD to your latest release?
Our audience is more audiences with an « s ». We’re not really a headliner, except for some cities in Switzerland and France, so have been constantly sharing the stages with other bands which affected the audience (and the turn-out !). I think we now have more metalheads attending our shows than in the past - when hype was to grow the longest beard possible, have a Isis tee, a black cap and like atmospheric post-rock. God knows i’m not a metalhead, but seeing people at shows wearing Gorgoroth t-shirts and enjoying the brutal side of our stuff is sooo cool ! Stage has to be viscral, not cerebral !
11. Will you be performing in North America at all?
I wish we would – this is so expensive and logistically complicated for a band of our (tiny) size… ! We have plenty of touring to do in good ol’ europe first, but i’d be glad to come over – drive 600 miles a day, my dream !
12. Do you prefer smaller or larger venues to play at this stage of band?
We like them all ! My preferences, though, go to the tinyest and the most gigantic ones. I like crappy caves with barely a stage and PA, playing in the middle of the crowd – and also when we land on a festival huge stage and have 50 meters to run between the drums and the monitors !
13. Your images seems to be very Post rock or Indie rock not extreme music is this done on purpose?
I guess we’re not that confortable being a « metal » band, though our music is clearly influenced by metal sound. And the fact is that we try to escape the usual metal (AND hardcore) clichés by all possible means. In some way, i think we are more of a rock band. Or of a punk band. But yes, we try to avoid thoses « look my attitude » visuals.
14. Here do you see underground artist like yourself heading with or without labels now? Do you still reallly need a label to get out there and sell music and perform on good tours?
Sure. A label is different now than it used to be, but you still need people taking care of what you can’t (or don’t have time to) : promotion, internet, records distribution… Even if you’re a band lucky enough, like we are, to have people of diverse talent in the band (jak is our designer, raph is producing our albums, i am working in the distribution and booking sector…), if someone doesn’t engage a little money and a bunch of time to promote what you’re doing, you keep playing in the neighbourhood and selling records to your friends, right ? Labels look more like management nowadays, but are necessary !
15. Thank you for the time any closing thoughts here??
Thanks for yours ! It’s always a surprise to see people consider us worth spending an hour doing an interview ! …
And please correct my english, since it’s not my mother tongue.
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