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Interview mit Master
Band: Master
Homepage: http://www.master-speckmetal.com
Datum: 21.09.2013
 
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Hell-o from the gutter my dear Hotel666-readers. Maybe you are wondering why this interview is written in english. It´s caused by the fact that I had the great opportunity to make an interview with Paul Speckmann from the mighty Master! So this is a more international one and therefore it is an english edition :). Hope you´ll enjoy it. By the way, Paul answered my questions in two days... this is what I call fast :).

H666: Hello Paul, welcome to the realms of Hotel666. Hope you´re doing fine? I must say that I am a little bit nervous because it´s my first interview in english, so I hope your beard won´t fall out because of my english, and I also hope that you, a person who is so long in this business, ins´t bored by my questions.

Paul: Hey brother I appreciate the effort of course and I look forward to the interview. I scanned through the questions before I went to bed last evening and I think you did a fine job my friend, and the beard is still intact!

H666: When I first listened to Witch-Hunt I was blown away by the brutality and intensity of it. And the more I listened to Witch-Hunt it grew more and more to a very big monster full of energy, variaty and heaviness. Congratulations for a new Death Metal MASTERpiece. I am really overwhelmed by the new songs. What do you think about the new album and how are the reactions so far?

Paul: To be honest, the reactions are quite good at the moment with the exception of a few patriotic American dickheads that like to compare Master with many of the bands that copied Master's style and formula. We go in the studio with the same attitude for every recording. We are looking to make an aggressive conscientious, thought provoking record, and we certainly have succeeded once again, at least in my opinion!

H666: It is the 12th Master album. Your secret for sounding so fresh after all these years?

Paul: This is an easy answer. The band Master and the members truly believe in what they are doing so this comes natural. I realize that Satan and fiction sell and people love the stuff, but I try and create songs that have a special thought or idea about this God forsaken planet, and hope someone uses this food for thought to try and improve the living conditions of others. I let the music do the talking so too speak, and since the world is declining on a yearly basis, the trials and tribulations of mankind become more and more difficult, and this is captured on the recordings and so they sound fresh in the end. The recordings are a log of the world at a particular moment in history and so they are always fresh in some sense.

H666: I think it´s no secret that Master is your band. How much do the bandmembers influence the songwriting or do you write the songs alone and just present them to your members?

Paul: The normal process is that I bring tracks to the table after writing when I feel like it.
The songs are not forced so I believe they have a more natural feeling in the end. I pick up the acoustic once in a while and write licks, and record these on a micro-cassette recorder and when it is time to record, I piece together the songs. Drummer Pradlovsky and I usually get together in the mornings at the rehearsal studio and work on the arrangements. Then I teach the guitar parts on the electric guitar of course to guitarist Nejezchleba and we go from there. Sometimes Nejezchleba brings tracks to the table, but on this effort he was busy working at a local music shop, so I wrote 10 of the 11 tracks myself.

H666: Let us come to the lyrics. You do not have a good opinion about our western civilisation. Not a really big surprise. What inspires you and what would you make different if you had the chance to change something?

Paul: The superpowers and their antics dictate the lyrics on every Master recording. We live in a world of chaos and bureaucracy with dictators in every country in control of our destiny and I certainly hate this. Freedom is becoming a thing of the past, with the retina scans for example at the airports as the paranoid American government implements stricter regulations for travelling. It's a Witch-hunt, every long haired tattood maniac with a guitar or snare in his hand is surely a terrorist in their eyes. What ever happened to freedom?
If I could change something, maybe I would feed and clothe the Americans that are starving and dying in their own backyards in the slums of the USA! Hell, the same goes for the poor in France and Brazil and many of the Central American countries.

H666: What do you think about the artwork which was made by ArtWars Mediadesign (Marc Niederhagemann)? I think it looks really cool!

Paul: I actually just picked from the many artworks on display at the website, but I think it was a worthy choice as it has the old school feel and look of a winner!

H666: The production of Witch-Hunt is very rough and natural. I really like this kind of productions a lot. It seems that Master are no friends of sterile, overproduced plastic-sounds?

Paul: We play naturally so we are are looking for a natural not overly produced product. The studio Shaark in Bzenec, Czech Rep, take pride in their work and this can be felt on the production. The studio is not just about money like Morrissound and the bigger studios, it's more about quality and originality. I recorded several records in bigger studios in the early days and they only cared about the cold hard cash and nothing more.

H666: How came Master in contact with F.D.A.-Rekotz? Did Rico asked you to sign and what do you think about his record label? For me it is one of the best for extrem Metal now.

Paul: I announced on Facebook that I was thinking about starting Speckmann Records and the outpouring of sentiment was overwhelming to say the least. Then a fan suggested F.D.A.- Rekotz and I wrote the website after reading that they weren't accepting submissions at this time. A few hours later I received a message from Rico and sent a few demo tracks and the rest is history. I believe that we will have a long and prosperous future together. I realize it's a big risk to sign as an old man and an old band but I believe things will work out well in the end for both parties.

H666: What keeps you going on still believing in Master and for example just not ending it and only doing your merchandise-work?

Paul: When I see the faces of the fans from the stage and actually meet the bands and fans alike, I see that I need to continue to share my thoughts and ideas as well as the aggressive music with the world! I enjoy this immensely.

H666: Master is well known for its simple and straight Death Metal-style. Never got any intention to write more technical songs? What do you think about technical Death Metal? For me it is sometimes a little bit too much and I think that the aspects of what is Death Metal all about are gone. Replaced by ultra-speed and thousand riffs and breaks in a song.

Paul: Less is more, I obvously respect and admire Mr. Harris from Iron Maiden but there is no place in this style for this! I prefer Motörhead or Venom in the long run. Master were influenced by bands like Sabbath, Judas Priest, GBH and Discharge this where we came from. These bands were and are still playing straight-forward Metal like Master period!

H666: On the Witch-Hunt-bandphoto you wear an Extreme Noise Terror-Shirt. How much do you see an influence of Punk and HC for the evolution of extreme Metal? For me there would be no extreme Metal without it. Do you share my opinion?

Paul: Without these bands like The Exploited, MDC and even DRI for example many of the extreme bands wouldn't exist and I personally enjoy Extreme Noise Terror for the energy and attitude as well as the music and the shirt was a gift from the band as well. I support those who are my friends!

H666: For the last years there is a big new wave of Old School Death Metal. Do you enjoy it and do you think that there will be such a release-overkill like in the nineties or will it stay in the underground this time?

Paul: I really never hear anything new to be honest, at least in my opinion. I realize this pisses everyone off, but I give a rats ass about it. Many of the bands of today so-called Death Metal revival play nothing but regurgitated Master, Deathstrike and Death riffs mixed in with Autopsy.

H666: You are for three decades in the music business now. How do you see the evolution of Metal in general? From being something like an oucast thing in the early days becoming a very big, well structured and a well developed area for the market economy. Heaven or hell?

Paul: This is a difficult question, because Master is and always will be stuck in the underground. I haven't the slightest idea what success truly means in at least the monetary sense. We will never be as marketable as many of the other shitty Death Metal bands that haven't written an acceptable album in twenty years yet still get the support of the masses.

H666: I saw Master last year for the very first time live at the small but very cool United Forces Festival at Osterode/Harz which is organised by the cool guys of the great The Atmosfear. Do you liked it there? Or asked in another way, do you prefer playing gigs in smaller or bigger venues?

Paul: I like both of course but the smaller venues have a more intimate atmosphere and this is really the best. I like hanging with the freaks after the shows of course. We had a blast at that fest brother for sure!

H666: You are living for a lot of years in Europe now. What are the differences between Europe and the USA?

Paul: I have generally found more freedom over here period, this is certainly a big reason for me to stay and enjoy life here. In Czech you can still stroll around the streets in the middle of the night drunk if you wish this, and there is no fear of getting mugged or attacked. None of the neighbors are trying to rob, murder or shoot you! Of course it's not a perfect world anywhere, but it is certainly better living in Europe!

H666: When I was in the USA in 1995 for a school exchange I was a little bit shocked about the fact what the people think about Germany. For example we were asked if all our streets are still all cobbled streets and why we still wear swastika armbands. Horrible!

Paul: Who cares there are many cobbled streets in Czech and this adds to the charm. There are plenty on fascists in the USA marching for Hitler. What a bunch of idiots marching for a dead leader that was the tyranny of the modern world at one time. It's like throwing stones from your own backyard. The funniest thing about Americans is they shoot of their big mouths about things over here when many have never left their own backyards! The metal fans are still there for our shows or I would never return.

H666: And one of the german teachers was really asked if he enjoyed the trip from Germany to the USA by car!

Paul: I believe this, there are a lot of braindead idiots in the USA!

H666: So we are at the end of our interview now. Thank you for sharing some of your time with us. Any last words to the Hotel666-readers?

Paul: Sure buy The Witchunt after hearing it on the stream or illegally downloading it. We need to eat as well people. You can find more info if you are interested at master-speckmetal.net .

H666: You read it. Go and buy Witch-Hunt because it is reeealy worth the money and support persons who stay strong in their attitude and give a shit about others opinion just to sell more records. And if you want to see them live, go to Wolfsburg on the 6th of December in the s.v. JH Ost, which is a very cool location for Death Metal concerts. Master play there with four other bands and it just costs 10,-. I think the Dissouled-guys who organise the concerts there will be very happy when the location is full of rotten Death Metal-lunatics :).
// Rudi

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