Travel bans, concert cancellations - the Corona crisis caught many bands and organisers by surprise. Even the Berlin stoner rockers can tell you a thing or two about it, because they would have actually been on a world tour in spring. Guitarist and singer Christoph "Lupus" Lindemann explains how the experiences of the lockdown resulted in an unplanned album with unusually calm tones
eclipsed: Can your new album "The Isolation Tapes" be seen as a kind of sound document of your forced break?
Lupus: Exactly. We were in the middle of a big tour when it was suddenly over for everybody on March 18th. We had to break off, we came back from France to Berlin and then we got bored relatively quickly. Shortly before the lockdown we did a stream concert, the opener "The Lonely Child" came from there. And the idea to just keep on making music together.
eclipsed: How did the recordings turn out?
Lupus: Because there are only three of us, it was possible that we all played in the studio. We have our own recording studio, just five minutes away by bike. We could meet every day and make music without any pressure. From many jams a red thread has developed over time. For example, we often left out the guitar and did more with synthesizer and piano, and worked our way up in spheres where we're otherwise not active, which of course also brings dangers when you leave your usual territory
eclipsed: WhatŽs different from your previous albums?
Lupus: ItŽs just not a hard rock album. In the past the guitar riff was the main focus and you built everything else around it. This time there are no riffs. Everything is much more spherical - maybe also due to the fact that everything around you became much calmer and slower, that there was no room for loud guitars anymore...
