OLD MOTHER HELL - BERND WENER & RONALD (RONNY) SENFT

💿 Hi,it’s a pleasure for us to have on Hardrockheavymetal BERND WENER and RONALD (RONNY) SENFT of OLD MOTHER HELL, the well-known Heavy Metal band from Germany Let’s start talking about the early days of the band..When is this all begun? Which bands have influenced you? Bernd: Old Mother Hell was formed from the remains of the band Hatchery from Mannheim, Germany. Ronny (Ronald Senft, bass) and Ruben (Ruben André, drums) began to work on new material somewhere in 2015, together with former Hatchery singer Robert Hoffmann as guitar player. They wanted to try something different, leaving the thrash metal stuff behind. I joined in autumn of 2015 as a singer. After our first show together in March of 2016, Robert unfortunately had to leave the band because of his studies and so I took over the guitar as well. The current line-up exists since summer of 2016. Ronny: We are influenced by traditional metalbands like Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath, or Candlemass and we also like 70s Hard Rock a lot. The interesting thing with NWOBHM is the fact that the bands at that time combined Hard Rock with Metal to form something new and exciting. It’s a little bit the same with us: we like to combine Metal, Hard Rock and Doom. This is not intentional though but rather a special feeling for great music. If a song has a good flow at the rehearsal, we don't mind if it is more Doom, Hard Rock or more the traditional way of metal riffing. Feeling is more important than genre. I think as a band you can't be really thrive if you don't allow other influences. On the other hand we will never be a modern crossover band because we are deeply rooted in the classic sound and feeling of 70s Hard Rock and 80s Heavy Metal. 💿 On Feb 23rd will be out your new self-titled album. Can you tell us somethin’about this platter and its composition process? We had the privilege to listening to it in preview and we’re very satisfied! Bernd: Thank you for the feedback, great to hear you liked it. Our songs are normally composed together in our rehearsal room. In that regard we are a quite classic combo, meeting once per week and just let things rock. We had to rearrange some ideas we had from the time with Robert, because I don’t play the guitar nearly as well as him and had the additional difficulty of having to sing to what I am playing. I also write nearly all of the lyrics. Sometimes I do it while we work on the songs, sometimes afterwards. Ronny: We recorded the album in May 2017 at Rama Studio Mannheim under the supervision of producer/engineer Jens Siefert. He has the same philosophy concerning the way it should be done, namely: recording live the old-school way, not even doing a second guitar, grid-editing, drum samples, copy and paste or other ‘fancy’ stuff. It was a hell of a ride and felt absolutely fantastic and authentic. Jens captured that feeling and turned it into exactly the sound we wanted.

💿 The album will be released via CRUZ DEL SUR MUSIC . Can you tell us somethin’about the relationships with them? Bernd: We did contact only one label beforehand and were not at all pleased about how that went. After that we decided to release the album completely on our own, selling it on our shows and via our website. There was quite some fuzz about on social media, so just a few weeks after the release, Enrico contacted us. Several friends had recommended Old Mother Hell to him. We quickly agreed on doing the vinyl and digital release. And because the first edition is already nearly sold out, there will also be a re-release on compact disc via Cruz Del Sur. We are really thrilled and enjoy working with Enrico and his team. It is a pleasure and always absolutely down-to-earth. We also couldn’t be happier being label mates with bands like Argus, Pharaoh, Mausoleum Gate or Slough Feg. 💿 The real “news” in music industry is the return of vinyl; What’s your feeling about this classic format and the current music business? Bernd: It was quite early after the release that people were asking for a vinyl version of the album. It really is a first for all of us to have an album of one of our own bands on vinyl. We are really happy about that. We have decided to record in a classic way, so this classic format is indeed a perfect fit. Regarding the music business we have the feeling that many fans are over with loudness war, excessive triggering, countless layers of guitars and all that modern stuff. Not only in metal but in hard rock as well. Look at the success of bands like Night Demon, Blues Pills, Graveyard, Horisont and the likes. Many people – and we are part of that demographic – are craving for authentic music. We are really lucky and happy to be in that mindset, with the right kind of music in the right place and time.

💿 Can you tell us somethin’about your next live projects to promote the new album? Are there some gigs scheduled? Bernd: We are headlining the Frostbiter festival in Wuppertal in March. Then there is the Waldpark Open Air in October. Maybe there will be some more festival shows, but nothing is set yet. Currently there is no tour planned. Let’s face the facts: we all aren’t in our 20s anymore. There are families and other responsibilities. Everything has to be organized quite well. But we always try to make things happen. We all love to play live and rock together with our fans. Let’s stay tuned and don’t forget to visit our website www.oldmotherhell.de or Facebook page www.facebook.com/oldmotherhell regularly to stay up to date regarding new shows! 💿 Thank you so much for your time! See you soon on Hardrockheavymetal! Bernd & Ronny: Thank you very much for your interest and the interview.

(Thanks Clawhammer Pr)

#NWOTHM #DOOM #CRUZ #CLAWHAMMER