|
|
|
|
|
|
The Swiss heavy metal band Detonation were our guests on the Art For The Ears Interview Message-Board! Below you can find the results of this online interview that will introduce you to this band that will accompany Mortification for several dates on their next European tour in June 2001.
___________ Mpomusic: Can you give us a cool introduction to Detonation? What is the band about? And how did the three of you get together? Toni: Detonation is a three-man band, founded in early 1997, with Daniel (drums), Michael (guitars) and me, Toni (guitars, bass). We decided to call the band Detonation for two reasons: The first is, because we all love power, thrash and speed metal and we wanted to do the same with Detonation, the music should "detonate". Second, because we wanted to challenge every listener in a honest, clear, simple way to think about Jesus Christ. We don't force anybody, our lyrics are never "you must", but we always wanna show how much Jesus loves everyone and "invite" the listener, to get the free love of God. That's our goal. We got together in a very simple way: We (Detonation members) are just close friends since 1993/94, Daniel and Michael even since their childhood. In the last four years, we've been through so many things together, that tied us together. The bondage between us is not the music, it's the deep friendship that we share for years and our faith and relationship with Jesus.
Rogoth: I noticed that you've got a CD out called Cry It Out. what do you think of your own music as displayed on that CD? Toni: Cry It Out is something like a dream come true. We aren't professional musicians and we all started to play in an age, when others already thought about finish making music. We like the displayed music a lot. Of course my personal dream is to do a full length album that has the same quality like Mortification's Hammer Of God, but for a debut EP, we are very happy about the music as displayed on CD. We never ever heard our own music so cool and powerfully recorded. It was amazing, and yes, we all three like it very much and I must admit that we often listened to the record on our own! Sorg: I was wondering, what style are the vocals on your CD? Are they high and clear (like Jacobs Dream, Iron Maiden)? Or are they the "harsh" metal style like Mortification? Toni: The vocals are screaming/speaking, but clearly to understand, around the Mortification or (spoken) Snubnose style. In some songs (not on the CD) we have some sung passages, but really not much, because we just can scream better than sing... Daphne: What is your favorite food? Italian, Greek, junkfood or Asian? Please answer all three of you! Toni: Wow, what a difficult question! We all three just love to eat, it's very hard to choose... Daniel loves Italian food, Michael loves Greek, Italian and fast food! As far as I'm concerned, I just love everything! Italian, fast food (huge cheeseburgers for example) Asian food (my girlfriends 50% Asian) and also Greek cheese (I don't know very much Greek food). Daphne: I read the part about you giving bibles for free. Aren't you afraid that people may take advantage of this? Or: Do you think this couldn't do harm, because a bible is a bible and even if someone sort of steals it, it can only be good??? Toni: The thing with the bibles is difficult. OK, until now, not many persons ordered a bible, but we found out, that good bibles in different languages aren't very cheap and the postage is very high. I guess in the next few days we'll change the offer. We have a lot of free new testaments (unfortunately only in German) to give away... ToddPope: Where can I get your CD's at? And do you have a mailing address I can write to to buy merchandise directly from the band? Toni: Our CD you can get through Rowe Productions. Unfortunately we haven't got any merchandise. We hope to create some T-Shirts for May 2001 (for the coming tour) but it's very expensive to do merchandise. We hope to bring T-shirts, stickers and maybe even long sleeves out in spring, but I can't promise anything, depends on the prices.
ToddPope: Every Christian seems to have some sort of testimony. What are the individual testimonies regarding each member of the band? Yeah, I know this may take a while to answer, but it'll be good for the people to read! Toni: Michael and Daniel both grew up in Christian families. In their youth, they found out, that they had to make a decision for Jesus, that their families and the church don't save them, that only Jesus makes sense! Me, I became a Christian through my friend of the same school class when I was aged 17! Through him I could see, that something must be true, that somehow he was so different to other "Christians" that he really lives what he was talking about. I knew, Jesus is real and asked Him into my life - for me it was and still is a journey, a never ending process, to walk the path with Jesus. It's a relationship and God continues to change and to heal, it's a never ending process. I personally often see Jesus in other people, and in music, these are two big windows of many through which I see Jesus alive! Jarhead: You'll be touring with Mortification, but what do you honestly think of the band? And how did you get on that tour? Toni: Mortification? Since 1992 I know Mortification, and became a fan more and more. Since 1995 I am a big Mortification fan. I think they are great, Steve Rowe's cancer-sickness touched me very much, we were praying a lot for him and are glad, that God healed him! Steve's newsletters always impressed me, he never said "oh I am such a poor man, God has let me down". He always wrote faithful, joyful and hopeful words and in his music (since Hammer Of God more than ever) you can hear the joy he has in Jesus! We sent him a CD in early 2000, and he answered us and asked us, if we wanted to join Mortification on their Euro-tour in 2001! It was like a childhood dream come true! I think Mortification is really not only one of the best metal bands, but Steve's also a really honest and joyful JESUS lyrics writer! The joy of the Lord and reviving power is in their music and lyrics! Jarhead: You're going to tour with Mortification in Europe. Now I've heard that the list published by Nuclear Blast is chockfull of errors. Can you give us a list of what places you're gonna play? Toni: Yes I think the tourdates we have
now are correct ones: Jarhead: I thought you guys were going to Scandinavia too. So is it only six or seven dates for Detonation? Toni: Yes it's true, we (Detonation) go back home on the first of July while Mortification continues in Scandinavia and later in USA. A few months ago, it was planned to go to Scandinavia too, but a lot of things changed there and although we would love to go it's OK for us to go back home after six or seven dates. We're very happy, because it's our very first tour and to play as opener for Mortification is a kind of childhood dream for all of us! I hope to see you in Holland! Jarhead: Something else about the tour. Are you guys working feverishly to get real tight and massive for it? I mean, this is the chance of your life! And how will the set be like? And what songs are you going to play? Toni: Yes, Jarhead, you're so right. We have to work a lot to satisfy the metal crowd on the tour. It can be the beginning or the end of Detonation, I guess... We already started to prepare everything. We hope to do at least one gig here before we start the tour. We can play 45 minutes per gig. I guess we play some new songs like Forgiveness, Battle Hymn, Was That All?, and a new one (untitled so far...). We'll play Unity as well from the EP. About the other Cry It Out EP songs we're not quite sure which we should take. We hope that the new songs will be liked by the metal hearts... ToddPope: Touring! You guys coming to Minnesota, USA ever??? Toni: Wow! It would be cool to go to the USA one day! We can't tell you now if we ever have the possibility to travel to the USA, but we would love to play there! We all work 100%, Detonation right now (maybe in a few months or years it has changed) is a spare time job, a "serious" hobby, that grows into ministry. |
|
|
|
|
