Crimson Moon: How did the band get started?
Max: We started being a live band in 2009, before that “Devil-M” was just a project in which I experimented with some different music styles, i.e. Ambient, Noise, Death Metal.
Crimson Moon: What kind of music do you play?
Max: It variates with every release we publish. At first it was typical Hard rock mixed with some Noise-elements. Later with our last album “Kannst Du sterben” it turned into some kind of electro and EBM. Now we made a style something between Industrial Rock/Metal and Soundtrack and I guess it will be a longer period to stay with it than the last couple times as we like how our new release “Revenge of the Antichrist” sounds now.
Crimson Moon: How has the band response been?
Max: At first very mixed. We come from a region where music like that isn’t very popular. Since 2011 we had our very first gig outside the region and it was a very well response we got. Since that we focus on outside of our region.
Crimson Moon: Where did the band name come from?
Max: When I was 12 years old I created grafittis but needed a typical nickname. So I took my first names initial and put some horns on it. There you go, the letter M with devils horns. Devil-M. Later I which I had chosen another band name but everything else sounded shitty, because I got used to “Devil-M”.
Crimson Moon: Introduce the band members
Max: There is Lars, the guitarist, and Lisa, the bassist. They’re a couple for several years. And there’s me, Max the singer, and Sonja, the keyboarder, we are also a couple. I think this constellation is very rare in the music business, it’s some kind of a family atmosphere in between the band.
Crimson Moon: Who writes the music? Lyrics?
Max: The lyrics just me, actually. The last albums where already written when the other mates came in. But I guess Lars will take a big part in writing the lyrics in future songs as he and I do it on the songs itself since 2011.
Crimson Moon: And where do the lyric ideas come from?
Max: Usually by watching movies. We always wrote songs after we watched a, mostly depressive, movie. For “Revenge of the Antichrist” we used movies like “another world”, “Antichrist”, “the Wall”, “Begotten” and “million dollar hotel”.
Crimson Moon: How many albums/CD’s have you released?
Max: 2009 – Willst Du sterben (EP)
2011 – Kannst Du sterben (LP)
2014 – Revenge of the Antichrist (LP)
Crimson Moon: Tell me about some the songs on the latest CD?
Max: We tried to criticize a bunch of religions, i.e. “Rebirth” refers to Islamic bombers who aren’t allowed for anything due to their faith but for them it’s legit to tear into death. Besides that there is a story behind “Revenge of the Antichrist”, The story behind the Album is about a guy called Astharat who suffers on schizophrenia and kills his wife Eden. The album escorts the listener more and more in Astharats dark world, ups and downs due to his mood shake the listeners through a world full of self-hatred, blood and a million ways to die. And you can always hear the phrase “it was his faith from birth to make a mark upon the earth” – a fanatic catchphrase that describes Astharats explanation for his murder.
Crimson Moon: Do you have any side projects?
Max: Lars is always around with friendly bands, doing covers and featurings. A couple days ago he recorded some acoustic tracks with a female singer”, pretty awesome stuff. He’s one of the guys who can cover songs from Adele or Ed Sheeran and make a totally different version. The rest of us had some couple bands in the past but they’re more a hobby.
Crimson Moon: Who are some of your musical influences?
Max: In the first place Marilyn Manson and Psyclon Nine without a doubt. And David Bowie, Nathan Adler was his best alter ego he ever created.
Crimson Moon: Which current bands?
Max: Actually I’d say Centhron, Tool (because of the depth in their songs) and Gothminister.
Crimson Moon: What is the band like when you play live?
Max: Covered in blood, devotion screamings and jumping around the stage. We’re full of energy with this record.
Crimson Moon: What was the best band you played with?
Max: For now it was “Grausame Töchter” in Hamburg, Germany in 2012. It was their release-show for one of their albums and their hometown. We also played with “Eyes Shut Tight” on this day, all three bands understood very well and helped each other.
Crimson Moon: Have you guys ever played in another country?
Max: No but we will this fall. We will tour with Centhron through Europe.
Crimson Moon: How big of crowd shows up at shows usually?
Max: We are mostly the support acts or play on festivals, so it’s quite difficult to say how many people come to see us. We already played for 10 people but also for 300.
Crimson Moon: How is the crowd response when you play?
Max: Again, we are mostly the support act, so most people came to see the main act. But they always liked us though and it was always a great concert for them.
Crimson Moon: What is the scene like over in your country?
Max: It turned from fetish and electro (2011-2013) to a now much heavier scene, above all the Metal. and Industrial-scene.
Crimson Moon: What does the future hold for the band??
Max: The near future is full of live-shows. Unfortunately all four of us have a full-time job, so we can only play about 10-15 shows a year and have to move more gigs into the next year (that is also nearly full of shows for now). Apart from that we will focus on some film-projects as we plan to make a movie for “Revenge of the Antichrist”. I really hope we can finalize it, scripts and screenplays are already finished, it’s more a money-thing.
Contact them at:
https://www.facebook.com/devilmband
https://twitter.com/devilm_news
http://www.youtube.com/user/hardyzbest
https://myspace.com/devilmmusic
