2006 Update 3: Received this update from Psychotron: Founding member Gert Kopf (drums) has left Psychotron due to personal reasons. The band want to thank him for his work in the past 11 years and wish him all the best for his future. Psychotron is looking for a new drummer who can fill the vacant slot. Interested people can contact the band at matzebraun@psychotron.de.

Interview with Matze from Psychotron, by Jen

I'm not one for Power Thrash bands, but you guys are great. What influences as a band do you guys have?
Thanks a lot. It really makes us happy to know that there are people like you who like our music. It is really funny that many people tell us that they are not in that kind of music we prefer for ourselves but -in spite of that- they think our way of playing Metal fits to them. I could imagine that it has something to do with a great number of influences we have. The musical interest diverges between each member of PSYCHOTRON. You will find the good old Rock´n´Roller as good as the evil Black Metal messenger of hell … sometimes just in one person, hmm!? I think, out of this pool of different styles we take all those things we like best. But in the process of song writing we never think about any band or direction we try to sound like. In the end we have in common the Metal of the 80´s which includes the NWOBHM and good old Bay Area Thrash. You like to have names? EXODUS, TESTAMENT, FORBIDDEN, ANTHRAX, SLAYER, SAVATAGE, MEGADETH, NEVERMORE, IRON MAIDEN are only some of them.
For someone who never heard your band before, give a description, who you might sound close to, etc.
Well, it is difficult to explain your own stuff. I think PSYCHOTRON combines the aggression of traditional THRASH METAL with the melodic feeling of modern POWER METAL. A lot of people have compared us with bands like NEVERMORE and TESTAMENT which is a great honor to us but I do not think you have to agree with. At least, this allegation would be a bit presuming from us, don´t you think so?
I have the CD Open the Gate. Tell us a little about that, when it was recorded, where, who produced it, when the songs were wrote, etc.
The songs from OPEN THE GATE have been written between 1999 and 2002. After we had quit with our former guitarist Andi, we wrote a couple of new songs and searched for a new axe-man who would fit to the rest of the pack. Well it has been a real hard work to find this guy. So, in 2000 Kai joined the band. And first he had to learn the Songs of CCT for our live-set and second he had to work out his part on the new ones that we liked recording soon.
Where you happy with the final outcome? Is there anything you would have done over?
It´s almost the same with every band you talk to, but I am not happy at all with OTG. And so no member of the band is satisfied with the result. It´s not so much the songs, we still like to play some of them but the sound is worse. I really like old school stuff but I think no one wants to listen to a record today that would have even been questionable back to the 80´s.
You also have a release from 1999- Chaos Cosmic Time and then a demo from 1996. How have you evolved as a band since those recordings? Do you think you changed and how so?
Compared to the actual output our first full-length cd has a more unique sound which is more comfortable to the listeners ear. Well, it´s been the first time we worked out a complete album and in the end we are very proud on this thing even today. The first time we had a line-up that has last over a longer period. The output has been the logic consequence of our hard work to that time and so a further step on. What can I tell you about the demo of 96? It has been done within 2 days in a small home-studio. It belonged to a guy who had been known to our former guitarist Chris. It has been the first sign of life of some hungry guys who liked to take the METAL underground by storm. We could not know at that time that there would be a lot of circumstances that liked to make us even more powerful and give us a lot of chances to improve ourselves, haha!
You guys had a very impressive in-lay for the CD. Explain what that is.
Well, it is our imagination about a thing called PSYCHOTRON which is realized/designed very well by Mike Schindler from Dragon Design. A thing half being man, half robot. It´s man within machine and vice versa. I think mankind is just one step away either from destruction or another evolutionary step – what might be the same? Sometimes you have to do things you´re not allowed to do, you´ve been warned by society, religious or, whatever, moral standards. Sometimes you´ve got to find your own way in living or - you just want to know … in short: you have to open the door to enter the next room with all its possibilities, answers and even more questions. It will open your mind but it´s the hard way to go. In fact it symbolizes a lot of aspects of life itself. It´s a combination of fiction and reality, a confrontation of mankind's psyche with non-fiction, philosophy and so on. It contains all of our personal thinking about life and death, about heaven and hell – at least any thing that has an influence on our lives.
Are you guys looking into any labels currently?
At the moment we have finished the work to our next album which title will be PRAY FOR SALVATION. I think it will offer us some good chance to find an interested label.
What the next steps for the band? Any tours? New material?
As I told you before the next output will follow soon. It contains a bundle of very heavy and real thrashy metal pieces, which raw power will kick ass. If there will be no record company that will offer us some good deal we could accept, PRAY FOR SALVATION would be released and traded by ourselves. In the moment we are looking forward to present the new material as often as possible to the metal folks out there.
Do you get to play a lot of shows out? Who are some of your favorite bands to play with?
This month we will be opener of Overkill at one of their shows from the actual European-Tour. Believe me when I say it´s a dream to come true. I still can remember their first killer-album FEEL THE FIRE!!! Fore sure there are a lot of bands we like to play with. Exodus, Testament, … for fans like us there are too many to be mentioned.
Have you ever opened for a bigger, national band, and if so, how did that go? What was the largest place you played at and how many kids were there?
We played a lot of gigs with bands like Soul Demise, Perzonal War, Die Apokalyptischen Reiter, Eisregen, My Darkest Hate or Sacred Steel. Some bands we know for a long time, now. So we stay in contact with some of them over the years.
Well, the largest gigs we had on one of the smaller Open Air Festivals in Germany with about one or two thousand kids.
If someone was to see you guys for the first time, tell us what they could expect from the live show.
Tell me what do you expect from a METAL show? We always try to give our very best, no matter how many people want to see the show. You like to see Psychotron –even if you don´t want to- you´ll get them. You will join a show that is real, raw and true. We don´t need any gimmicks, light shows or something else (in fact we can´t afford it, haha). Just let the music do the talking. What else could I say? We love to play and that´s it!
How do you get your name out there? You have been around for many years, but how do you go about getting new fans? Do people just stumble across your web site and became interested?
We did a lot of gigs all over Germany the last years. So I think we have a good name in the underground scene, yet. Another thing is the organization of club gigs to support the METAL scene in our home town (which is not really rocking, you know!). There are so many young bands who are really worth to be listened. They should get the possibility to play as often as possible in front of the audience. There are a lot of clubs that have closed over the years. So, it´s not that easy to find any underground metal-events in our city or its surrounding. Further it is very necessary to present your music in the www. It´s the chance to reach people whom you would never meet on ordinary ways. Not at last, there are so many net´zines who support metal and spread it all over the world.
What is your comparison of the European scene to the North American scene? Have you ever been to the states to play or visit?
I can´t imagine that there are so many differences between the continents. I think sometimes it´s a difference between local scenes, not so much a matter of countries. And for sure it´s a question about personal or political circumstances what makes a scene more underground or enthusiastic than another. But, in fact I do not know enough about that to give any statements of worth. As I know, Gert has been in Florida a couple of years ago. But I hope, someday we will meet there?
You have had some member changes in the guitar area. What happened there? How does the new line up compare to previous ones?
You are right. We had no luck with our guitarists over a longer period of time. Most of the time because of personal reasons, like jobs and further bands. Sometimes we had real hard conflicts within the band that made it impossible to go on with that line-up. Now, we are looking forward, hoping to avoid the problems of the past. I think Kai is the perfect man beside Matze B. They have similar qualities in playing and in working at new tracks. On the other hand he is a nice guy who gets into a wild animal on stage. Well, to me it really is no new line up no more because we play together for a couple of years right now.
What do you guys do when not eating, sleeping and dreaming about metal?
We have jobs as social workers, employees and service-staff at computer and telecommunication concerns. There is not much spare time left besides job and music but we love to party for sure and spent an hour or two with friends. Guess I think that means party? Not to forget, we have to pay attention to girl-friends and family. I think we have to be lucky about our partners who share the same love for METAL as we do and you can say we have some good friendship all together – a happy, PSYCHO FAMILY, perhaps.
What are the top 5 releases of 2004?
MOTÖRHEAD: Inferno
CRADLE OF FILTH: Nymphetamine
ANTHRAX: The Greater Of Two Evils
EXODUS: Tempo Of The Damned
DOOMSHINE: Thy Kingdom Come
http://www.psychotron.de/
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