Fresh Acts: Stealing the Bride<br>STALKERs Fresh Act December 2011 - STALKER MAGAZINE inside out of rock´n´roll

Stealing the Bride
STALKERs Fresh Act December 2011

At the end of the year we have a look at the German scene once again, and there we have discovered Stealing the Bride from Mainz. The band found a new singer only in June this year, therefore it´s the right time to introduce those guys plus front lady Sarah to you STALKER readers:

Hello there, could you introduce the band a bit, who are you and which kind of music are you playing?
We are Stealing The Bride from Mainz and we play modern melodic Rock music with some Hardrock, Metal and Gothic influences – heavy guitar riffs and clean female voice, dynamic variations of lyrical melancholic and tough parts.

Your band has been existing in this line-up not for very long, Sarah joined the band in June, but how about the rest of you, how did it all begin?
We founded the band in early 2005 – back then Oli (Keyboards) was still in the line-up, he had played with Uli in another band before (Seven Of Nine). When this band split up, we were looking for musicians for a new project. We could win the experienced professional drummer Robert, with whom we had done some sessions before. Via various internet platforms we discovered Alex (Bass) and Patricia (vocals). We had not decided yet if we wanted a male or a female singer – we decided on Patricia, because she was most convincing in vocal technique and fitted best to the band also on a personal level. In this line-up we created new songs pretty quickly, and we presented those only a few months after formation at the band competition „Emergenza“ live on stage. We won the first round right away, and in semifinals we reached 3rd place – a nice way to start, and we played many beautiful gigs after that.

What was the reason that you split up with the old singer, and how did you find Sarah?
After four very nice years together, Patricia and we other band members developed more and more different musical interests. Patricia was more Pop-oriented, we wanted to keep hard Rock riffs and sinister atmosphere. Therefore we split up in early 2010. Via internet we found Hilke, who fit into the band nicely and also assisted with the song writing – unfortunately she had to quit after one year due to health reasons. We still didn´t want to call it quits and were looking for a singer once again – after listening to 14 female singers in our rehearsal room, we had 3 “finalists”, and shortly before deciding on one of them, Sarah popped up. After watching her demos on the internet, we felt immediately „that´s it”! We naturally had to meet her and do rehearsals with her, too, but also in this case she was very convincing; and despite the huge age difference (she is 21, and Uli, our oldest, is 48) we get along very well!

Your band name Stealing the Bride basically says it all, but for what reason did you choose this name?
The idea came from Uli´s girfriend Astrid during brainstorming at home – we pondered over which kind of name would fit to our music, which is a female voice and sinister guitar riffs, and suddenly Astrid came up with „Stealing The Bride“. Due to „Bride“ you can already guess it´s a female voice, and the overall meaning could indicate sinister men abduct a bride, or better, introduce a conservative girl to the dark world of Rock music – where she begins to blossom.

Sarah you are now a few months in the line-up and you have already recorded a song and played a few gigs with the band, how was your time with them so far?
It was a great time, I experienced a lot of new and interessting stuff and also matured a lot, personally and musically. In the past I indeed had many performances, but to stand on stage with a band was a new experience for me, which is a lot of fun. The recording in the studio is also very new for me and a nice experience. Next to the new additional creative influences and ideas I had the chance to get to know three great musicians, we get along very well with each other and I am happy that I applied for the Stealing the Bride singer´s job .

You released a self-made album in 2009, so do you have plans for another album with your new bride?
Because of our line-up changes we did not have much time to write new songs, yet there is new material which is almost enough for another album. We plan to start the recording sessions this winter and to release another CD in 2012.

I assume you are looking for a label? How would you promote yourselves to get attention?
We are not looking intensively for a label, because we can make music more independently this way, and we are quite ambitious but don´t make music professionally. We do think that our music is interesting for a label – we notice the positive response to our music in the internet and at concerts. Moreover, we have a unique style and sound, unusual songs, catchy melodies and a vocalist who does not just have a beautiful original voice but also amazing looks!

How does the songwriting work in your band? What do you try to achieve with a song, what are the lyrics about?
Many times it begins with a guitar riff that I (Uli) come up with at home during jamming. Then I try to develop the musical idea further – chorus and instrumental parts, vocal melodies – and working on those is usually the job of the whole band. During this process more ideas pop up, which kind of words or stories could fit to the music. In our lyrics we deal with personal experiences and thoughts, and we find it important to leave room for interpretation. Sometimes lyrics develop to the music in an associative way, and only afterwards we discover how the text could be interpreted and where it comes from, I mean which experience was having an impact. Very often it´s about the darker side of human existence which is usually surpressed, e.g. in „La Mala Vida“ the singer meets a peculiar woman in a lonely hotel; this woman not only appeals to all the guests in this hotel, she also provokes the singer to release her darker self. „Going To Extremes“ deals with the relationship between a withdrawn thinker to an extreme character, who fascinates and scares him but also gives him new unexpected experiences. „The Desert Inside“ deals with internet addiction, „Cry Wolf“ with deceitful relationships, and „The Border“ was inspired by the movie „Lichter“ (Lights) by German director Hans-Christian Schmid: It´s about people-smuggling, a woman leaves her Eastern European home to start from scratch in another country.

How could the German Rock scene be improved, in your opinion, o rare you perfectly happy with it?
We do think that Rock music needs much more public support, so that musicians have the opportunity to make music under good conditions (rehearsal rooms, gigs, recordings). There is so much money put into so-called E-Musik (Ernsthafte Musik = “serious music”, e.g. classical music, Opera etc) and not so much into so-called U-Musik (Unterhaltungsmusik = entertainment music) – in our opinion such distinction does not make sense at all! Support programs like „Rockbuster“ competition and LAG (Landesarbeitsgemeinschaft = state-wide workgroup) Rock & Pop in Rheinland-Pfalz are a good start but not enough, by no means. There is the problem of band oversupply – even if the band is good, it is difficult to get enough audience to the concert. It would help if musicians themselves would be more interested in concerts of their colleagues. If every gig of a local act was supported by a dozen musician colleagues who also bring their friends, it would provide a nice crowd already. But most are too focused on their own projects and complain about other bands who are not attending their shows – but also do not visit the gigs of other bands. The scene should cooperate much more and support each other, build and maintain a net of contacts and support groups.

What are your musical influences, who are your idols?
Those are totally different, for Uli it´s e.g. System of a Down, Metallica, Black Sabbath, Muse, Opeth, Nirvana, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, The Doors, Ritchie Blackmore, Steve Lukather, Django Reinhardt, Portishead, Pain of Salvation etc, for Alex Genesis, Pink Floyd, Sting, Porcupine Tree, Tiefschwarz, Spock's Beard, Coldplay, for Robert AC/DC, Toto, Tribal Tech, Pat Metheny, Bela Fleck & the Flecktones, Chick Corea, Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock, John Scofield, Richard Bona, Aretha Franklin and thousands more, for Sarah Nightwish, Evanescence, Combichrist, The Pretty Reckless, Faun etc.

Which band would you like to share a live-stage with?
One of those wishes came true recently, we supported the living legend Gitane Demone (Ex-Christian Death), the Grande Dame of Death Rock. It was a great experience, also because Gitane and her band – where daughter Zara plays the drums – treated us in an extremely friendly and cooperational way, we got along splendidly. A dream would be playing with Muse, and there´s also the reunion of Black Sabbath – supporting them would be a blast! But we are happy to support our local and very sympathethic bands from our region here.

What are your plans for the near future? Is there any chance to see you live?
We want to play more gigs in 2012, most in the area Rhein-Main and around. The next show takes place January 26, in Frankfurt am Main at „Nachtleben“. We are not stuck in the region, however, we also enjoy playing further away, but it´s more difficult to find gigs there – we had to cancel a festival gig in Italy because it clashed with our jobs, and the furthest distance gig so far took place in Köln. But we are ready and willing for anything, we would like to play in any German region or in a neighbor country.

STALKER readers who want to know more about you or buy CDs, can find you… where?
Our websites are www.stealingthebride.de, (including an order form for our CD), www.facebook.com/stealingthebride, or www.myspace.com/stealingthebride - you can also contact us directly, if you want to know more about us!

Author: Sandy Mahrer, transl. K.Weber, photos: Band
Date: 2011-12-01

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