Project Description

Interview With

LAGERSTEIN

Interviewer: Anne-Laure Marie

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Lagerstein are a folking, drinking, shouting and pirating rock/metal outfit hailing from the distant shores of Brisbane, Australia. The Majestic Beast (guitars) spoke to amnplify writer Anne-Laure about their upcoming tour, read the full interview below.

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AL: Lagerstein is pirate metal band on the rise here in Australia, could you say a few words about you?

TMB: We are a seven-piece part metal band just all about partying, drinking and having fun. What we are trying to do is to create the greatest party on Earth! (laughs)

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AL: The greatest party on Earth, I love that spirit! (laughs) So what is the vision of your band? Do you just do that for fun or do you have bigger ambitions?

TMB: Yeah that’s the plan. Basically we just want to play as many shows in as many countries as possible. So far it’s taken us to nineteen countries and we just want to take our music and create parties all over the world, that’s basically what we go for, just travel the globe, be pirates, have fun.

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AL: How do you write your music? Is it a collective work or is it more the effort of some particular members?

TMB: Generally speaking we all write some ideas at home and then we come together, sync some views, jam some tunes and then we make our songs, we write the lyrics together. I do a lot of the song writing along with Mother Junkst (Violin/Keytar) but all the other boys chip in as well. So yeah it is a pretty collective effort. We are trying to get everyone involved as much as possible so they all put their own flavour on it.

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AL: When I hear your music part of it sometimes reminds me of traditional Irish music, especially with the accordion, violin etc. Is it partly where you’re getting your inspiration from? If not, what and who are your main inspirations?

TMB: Definitely! We take a lot of inflows from the Irish drinking songs, and Saint Patrick’s day is one of our favourite day of the year! So we definitely take a lot of influence from songs played on that day. And we also love Oktoberfest, we’ve never been to the german one but we love celebrating it here in Australia and we take a lot of inspirations from their songs as well, plus a lot of folk metal in general and heavy metal and rock’n’roll.

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AL: You will be touring Australia in June, starting with Canberra on the 7th. How often did you tour Australia so far and what is your best memory?

TMB: This will be our 6th or 7th time going touring in Australia, and every single one is so much fun, we jump in the ‘Lager Bus’ and go and head around, tour these different towns and every night is a party. But to give you the best night in Australia, Melbourne is always a good time, it’s always really packed shows and then we go to Cherry Bar afterwards and we’re always there until 7am in the morning trying to find another bar (laughs). We love that place, every time we play in Melbourne we’re always there until sunrise afterwards (laughs). And we played Yah Yah’s for our last show and it almost sold out, it was jammed packed with people. So Melbourne goes quite well for us down there and we’re playing the Evelyn this time, it should be pumping, we’ve got a good line up for that night with Sudden State doing the tour!

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AL: While on tour, what does challenge you the most as a band? if any?

TMB: It’s true that having seven people could be hard but we all love what we’re doing and we just love experiencing travelling together. Everywhere we go the seven of us just have sick beers together and we just have the best times. We sometimes have hurdles you wouldn’t think would happen that just get randomly thrown at you, that would be the biggest. Like a driver cancelling to take you to a show (laughs). We had this one time we had to Uber like three hours to get to the next venue because the driver cancelled on us.

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AL: Oh no, that’s bad!

TMB: Yeah so just little things like that which are completely out of your hands, but you’ve still gotta make it happen.

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AL: No bad too drunk end of the night?

TMB: No, no! Definitely not, you never get too drunk (laughs)

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AL: On the other hand, what is the most rewarding thing as a band?

TMB: Being on stage is by far the best thing. Being able to play absolutely random towns, like in Poland or Czech Republic, and there is people there singing our lyrics and drinking to us, with the biggest smile and having the best time. That’s the best feeling about it all. Every night having the best time as possible with everyone, that’s all we’re trying to do.

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AL: Have you got a good fan base in Europe?

TMB: Yeah, so we’ve been there three times so far, we’ve just spent seven months over there last year, we played about 85 shows over there. Two tours before that we were supporting Alestorm who is another pirate metal band, they’re giant and we played to their audience so a lot of their fans transferred as being fans of us, so yeah, it is slowly starting to grow over there which is good.

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AL: Your music sounds very ‘European’ so I am sure it must be well welcome…

TMB: Yeah our music is definitely european sound and we are influenced by a lot of european bands but we’re trying to put as much Australian culture into it as possible, folk metal can have a serious side or a fun side and we’re definitely on the way more fun side of it, that’s what we’re trying to push real hard.

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AL: So who are your favourite bands?

TMB: Well my favourite bands are not really folk metal but I love The Beattles and Pink Floyd, they are my top 2. I’ll listen to everything from 60′ rock’n’roll to extreme black metal and everything in between.

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AL: Lagerstein seems to be a very theatrical band (dressing up, having fun, drinking on stage etc.). Have you ever tried to include your audience in this theatrical spirit and organise events/gigs where everyone has to dress up, drink, are part of the boat etc.?

TMB: Oh definitely, so all our fans are called the ‘Lager Crew’ and at every show there are so many people dressed up as pirates and during our shows we get them involved as much as possible, we always have sit down in the crowd and do an acoustic camp fire. In one of the songs the guitarist gets lost and he ends up in the crowd and our singer in the crowd and there is like a circle pit with all the people. And then we do the wall of death, get down in there and our singer walks up and down, and splits the crowd into two parts. We always try to incorporate the crowd as much as possible, they are our ‘Lager Crew’, they’re everything for us. And they also love coming out and just really having fun and really embracing being a pirate for the night, getting drunk with their mates, getting involved.

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AL: And usually what is the song that cracks the crowd up and give you the best stage experience?

TMB: One of our biggest song is the ‘Dreaded Skies’ and every single time it goes absolutely crazy. During the breakdown usually there is something hanging over the crowd like a lighting rail, and our singer will crawl up to that lighting rail and hang over the crowd up side down (laughs). That song generally goes off. Nearly every single time right from the start of our set until right at the end is real high energy, everyone is just getting involved. It’s a show more than a concert. Real theatrical, and it moves through different parts.

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AL: I saw you guys supported Ross the Boss last weekend. How was it?

TMB: Yeah we played with him on Sunday night, it was absolutely ballistic, it was so crazy. Before we even went on stage the crowd was just chanting our name. We played like a 45 minutes set. We usually play around 60 minutes so cutting it down was just like party songs after party songs and the crowd was just laughing it off. The energy was absolutely crazy. Then after the night we ended up seeing Ross The Boss and it was absolutely incredible, because we’re all big Manowar fans so it’s awesome to finally see Manowar songs in Australia for the very first time. We ended up going out with them afterwards to the Crow Bar and having a drink with them, that was really good.

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AL: Did you ask some advice, or anything?

TMB: Well we offered them some of our drinking tips from Australia (laughs). How to do a ‘Shoey’.

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AL: Tell me what a Shoey is!

TMB: Shoey is one of the greatest AAustralian traditions, and it’s when you take off your right shoe, you grab your alcoholic drink and tip it in your boot, then you drink it down and once you’re finished drinking you put it on your head upside down. That’s a shoey. Then you put your shoe back on your foot! (laughs) And walk proudly around with a wet sock!

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AL: Thank now, now I am proud to be able to be more Australian than my Australian friends! My last question will be: Is there any exciting project after tour or later in the future you would like to share with us?

TMB: So after this upcoming tour we have a few months off apart from July when we play the Dead of Winter Festival in Brisbane, which will literally be absolutely crazy. In September and October we have a festival called Lager Fest and that happens in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne. That will be our fifth year of doing it, that’s going to be absolutely giant. And we’re currently writing our third at the moment to record hopefully later in the year for 2019 release.

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AL: That’s exciting!

TMB: Yeah it is, we’re loving it. We can’t wait for the tour, for the Lager Fest, for the new album and heading back overseas again, probably in April/May 2019, getting on some festivals and stay over there for a few months.

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AL: Great, I am putting you in my diary! (laughs) for next year and Lager Fest

TMB: Cool! Yeah Lagerfest happens mid-September in Melbourne. That’s really our festival, 10 bands are playing, we have drinking games, party games, etc. this festival is our baby and we love it, it’s a day when everyone can come out and party out together and have fun!

AL: Thank you so much for your time, and have fun on tour!

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FOLLOW LAGERSTEIN:

INSTAGRAM          FACEBOOK          TWITTER           INSTAGRAM

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