| Kunstner: Code Of Perfection - Interview med: Thorsten Koehne; Guitar | ||
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Revolution Music: Hallo. First of I would like to congratulate you on your new album “Last Exit For The Lost”.
Thorsten Koehne: Hello! Well, thanks a lot! Revolution Music: Could you start out by introducing your self and tell us what part in the band you have? Thorsten Koehne: My name Thorsten Koehne and I´m guitarist and songwriter in the band CODE OF PERFECTION. Revolution Music: How and why did you come up with the name “Code Of Perfection”? Thorsten Koehne: We we´re looking for something that reflects the bands attitude towards music and playing their instruments and something that we could identify with. It´s not like we claim that we are perfect but at least we always try to get the maximum performance from our instruments and from the music. Jochen Mayer (producer) had the idea for “Code Of Perfection” and we all thought that that was a cool and memorable name. Revolution Music: How did you all come together, and became the band you are to day? Thorsten Koehne: After DEMON DRIVE split I wanted to do my own record, release my own songs, since I had been playing other peoples songs for so long and I thought it was time to do my own thing. Over the years I had written a lot of songs and I always wanted to record them in a proper version meaning with a good studio guitar sound, real drums and a great singer. My old DEMON DRIVE bandmate Jochen Mayer gave me the opportunity to produce an album and we just needed to find the right musicians. First choice for drums was DEMON DRIVE bandmate Frank Kraus. He´s an amazing drummer and we have the same taste in music and share the same musical background. Jochen Mayer suggested Carsten Lizard Schulz for the vocal spot and then again Carsten came up with Keisuke Nishimoto for bass. Revolution Music: This is your debut album right? And is released trough LMP, how did the contract get established, and how are they to work with? Thorsten Koehne: Yeah, it´s our first album and so far everything has been working great with LMP (Limp Music Productions). We´re very excited that Limb gave us the chance to present our music and to take the risk of releasing an almost instrumental album. Again Carsten Schulz made the connection to LMP since he´s signed to the same label with his band DOMAIN. Also Limp already knew me from the heavy metal band ATTACK. Album “The Secret Place” was released in 1995 also through LMP. Revolution Music: Why did you choose the title “Last Exit For The Lost” for this record, does it have any special meaning? Thorsten Koehne: Basically it refers to the title track “Last Exit For The Lost” which kinda deals with a rather dark view of the future and mankinds last chance to survive. I think if you look at the great cover artwork by Mattias Norén you get the idea. Though the title reflects a more negative mood I think the whole album is very uplifting and positiv. It´s about the pure joy and fun of playing your instrument to the limit. An art that I think is a little bit lost in todays music. In a way this is also a last exit for the lost… Revolution Music: When you started working on this album, how long did the process take from the first step to the final product? Was it hard to write new material for this record or did it come naturally for you? Thorsten Koehne: Most of the songs I had already written over the years. It was just a matter of finding the right ones for the album and eventually re-arrange them. So from recording the first drum tracks to the final mix and master it took about a year. You have to keep in mind that different studios were used and of course not everybody involved always was available at the right time so we had gaps in between. Revolution Music: Jochen Mayer was the producer on the record, why did you chose to work with him, and where did you record the album? Thorsten Koehne: We recorded drums and my guitars at Gerassi Park Studio in Mannheim Germany. All other tracks were recorded in various studios around the world. E.g. Keisuke recorded the bass in his studio in Japan, Michael Angelo played his guest solo at Monster Mix in L.A. etc. Jochen was the perfect producer for the album since I worked with him in the past on the Demon Drive albums and I knew about his abilitys. He´s just very experienced in the music business, knows a million people and has the knowledge and power to push such a project. Revolution Music: How was it to work with him? Thorsten Koehne: Very easy! We have similar ideas about the music and how to make it sound right. Also, he keeps me on my toes towards the instrumental part of it. As a guitarist you always tend to overplay on certain passages cause you want to squeeze in as many notes as possible which is sometimes too much for the general listener. Jochen kept a general ear on the music to make it more accessible. We also worked together on most of the songs arrangements. Revolution Music: Are you trying to express something through your music? Thorsten Koehne: Yes, feelings! That´s what´s music about! Even though the music sometimes is very technical we try to use technique as a tool to get feel across. The more technique you know and the more you´re capable on your instrument the more complex feelings you´re able to express which brings us back to the “Code Of Perfection” issue I stated earlier. Also we´re just trying to get the pure fun of playing across. It´s a positive thing. Revolution Music: How has the album been received by the press, the critics and the fans so far? Thorsten Koehne: So far we´ve been getting mostly great reviews from everybody. We´re a bit surprised ourselfs since we didn´t expect such a positiv reaction. We thought people would think it´s just another shred album but obviously some people understood what we´re trying to express. Revolution Music: What is your view on the group’s position in today’s music scene? Thorsten Koehne: I think what we do is special cause not a lot of bands do it these days or are capable of doing it. We just try to raise the technical level in music a bit more again. Revolution Music: How do you think old and new fans will react to the album? Thorsten Koehne: Hopefully they will dig what we do and get something out of it. We have a lot of different elements in our music so there should be something for everybody. I think old DEMON DRIVE fans will be a bit surprised though since COP music is a little different. Revolution Music: You have a bunch of guest appearances on the album, could you tell us about that? Thorsten Koehne: Well, Alex Beyrodt I knew from many guitar clinics that I´ve been playing around the world. He´s a great player and very easy going kinda guy so I really wanted to have his playing on the album. He plays the main guitar solo in "Hearts In Atlantis"! Carsten Lizard Schulz is an unbelievable singer and I liked his voice right away when I heard his work with his main bands DOMAIN and EVIDENCE ONE. He sings on the tracks "Miracle Times", "Walkin´ On Thin Ice" and "Superwoman"! Carsten suggested Ferdy Doernberg on keyboards simply cause he´s one of the best keyboarders around. I heard the stuff he did with Axel Rudi Pell and liked his playing right away too. He did some amazing synth solos on "evil:FEX" as well as playing piano on "Hearts In Atlantis" and keyboards and hammond organ on "Walkin´ On Thin Ice" and "Superwoman". Well, having Michael Angelo Batio play a guest solo on the album is really a dream come true for me cause that guy was and is one of my absolute favourite guitar heroes way back to the 80´s when I first heard his playing in an amazing band called NITRO. I was lucky to meet him in 2001 at the Los Angeles NAMM show for the first time were I was doing clinics for Dean Guitars. He liked my playing and when I asked him to do a guest solo he right away said yes. He played the main guitar solo in "Psychotic Nightmare" which he recorded in Monster Mix Studios in L.A..I feel very honoured to have him play on the album! Revolution Music: A lot of metal artists are releasing a lot of documentary and live DVDs, do you guys have anything like planned for the future? Thorsten Koehne: No, not yet. We´re a young, new band and we still have to play live a lot more to be able to release some live or documentary footage. Also DVD´s are expensive. We need to sell a few more albums first. Revolution Music: What kind of stuff did you grow up listening to, and what kind new music do you listen to these days? Thorsten Koehne: First rock bands I listened to were Queen, Kiss, Police, The Sex Pistols, Van Halen, that kinda stuff. Later came artists like Steve Vai, Yngwie Malmsteen, Racer X or Cacophony. The typical 80´s school of shred. These days I have a very diverse taste of music and that could be anything from Annihilator to Zappa. Latest album I got was “Meds” from Placebo...dig it! Revolution Music: Have any of these bands been source of inspiration for the album? Thorsten Koehne: Sure! Basically anything I listen to has in some way an influence on the music I create myself. Probably the biggest influence on my guitar playing was Yngwie Malmsteen. I think he´s just the best! On the album you can find many different influences from some of the bands I mentioned like Racer X, Cacophony or Annihilator. Revolution Music: In your time as musicians, what is your biggest musical achievement so far? Thorsten Koehne: Being able to record my own songs, getting signed with it by a record lable and getting great reviews for it after the release. Revolution Music: Could we expect any European tour and maybe se the band in action here in Denmark any time soon? Thorsten Koehne: We haven´t scheduled any tour dates yet but we´re already practicing to be able to play live a lot. E.g. a support tour with a bigger LMP act could be possible. Hopefully we´ll come to Denmark too! Revolution Music: How did you think the music scene is in Europe, compared to the scene in the US? Thorsten Koehne: I think in Europe it´s a little more diverse! The U.S. is dominated by MTV. Not saying that all music on MTV is bad but it´s only a small part of all the music that´s out there. Revolution Music: What would be the ultimate tour, festival or show for you to play at? Thorsten Koehne: Ultimate tour: Co-headlining with Racer X at the Ozzfest. ;-) Revolution Music: Do you have any breaking news with the bands? Thorsten Koehne: We start working on the new CODE OF PERFECTION album soon which will come out early next year and it will be even faster, heavier and more melodic. Revolution Music: That’s all we’ve get this time, do you have anything that you'd like to add or say? Thorsten Koehne: Well, I hope you all check out CODE OF PERFECTION and buy the album “Last Exit For The Lost”. We had a lot of fun makin it and we hope that you have a lot of fun listening to it! It´s one hell of a heavy guitar trip and I think it´s an (almost) instrumental album that rocks! Revolution Music: We would like to say thanks a lot for you’re time. And we wish all you guys all the luck in the future whatever it might bring. And thanks to Target Distribution for setting this interview up. Thorsten Koehne: Thanks a lot too! It was a pleasure! |
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