29 March 2024
11.8 C
Sofia
More

    Interview: And Then She Came (English version)

    And Then She Came is a rock/metal band from Aachen, Germany. They are a successor to Krypteria, a name well-known among Gothic and Metal audience. This june they released their debut album, they were on tour with Arch Enemy and they found a minute to answer our questions. This is their first interview for the Bulgarian press

    • Hello, it’s Orleff from “Rock The Night” magazine, It’s a pleasure to talk with you! Thanks for your time! Could you shortly introduce the band?
    Ji-In Cho - Vocals
    Ji-In Cho – Vocals

    Ji-In: Hi Orleff, this is Ji-In from And Then She Came and I am the singer of the band. We’ve also got our guitar player Olli, on drums it’s Kusch, and the man on bass is Frank.

    Kusch: The evolution of this band is quite an unusual one. Our bass player Frank was asked to create the soundtrack for German-American thriller „Bad Trip“. But instead of taking on this task all by himself he brought in Ji-In, Olli and myself. The creative process took on a life of its own, and all of a sudden we found ourselves working on songs for a full-fledged rock album.

    • Why did you decide to abandon your old band, Krypteria, and form this new band?

    Ji-In: Ever since we unanimously decided to take a ‚baby break‘ and put Krypteria on indefinite hiatus there never had been any specific plans for a new album. So, when we started working on said movie soundtrack we didn’t think about Krypteria either. And that, I think, was vital: There were no creative barriers or any demands by anyone but ourselves. We just started writing songs, and with all these ideas coming out we slowly recognized that we should get together again as a band. This definitely was not planned to happen but producing these songs felt so good and we had so much fun. We were totally thrilled by that new playground, and so here we are now as And then she came.

    Kusch: Now, as Krypteria remains on indefinite hiatus to us this right here is the real dealright now. Why? Because we are having the time of our lives creating and playing these songs, and playing them between the four of us. We would be doing this labor of love a disservice if we regarded it as just a side project. And Then She Came is our number one priority right now, and we are damn serious about this band.

    • S.C. Kuschnerus - Drums
      S.C. Kuschnerus – Drums

      You have a new album just released, how would you advertise it to our readers?

    Kusch: Whoa, how much time do I get? This is a very diverse record and I’d say it’s impossible to do its full scope justice by breaking it down into a few sentences. Soundwise, however, we ended up with a melange of very organic human performances and electronic elements. It’s hard-driving drums, heavy guitars and intense singing galore. It’s Rock, it’s

    Metal, there’s a whole lot of alternative vibes but also some pretty catchy hooks involved, too. We unofficially christened this sound Adrenalectrica. Lyrically we steered clear of your traditional boy-meets-girl topics, but rather went for a more political approach. Let’s say there’s not a whole lot of stand-by-your-man stuff on this album. Plus each song has some

    sort of meta level to it, too. My advise: Give it a spin or ten!

    • What comes out first – the lyrics or the melodies?

    Kusch: With us it’s usually music and melodies first.

    Ji-In: All four of us are creative minds so we put all our individual ideas on the table. We are all coming from different musical backgrounds, yet we totally complement and inspire each other which I think is a huge asset of this band. Now, as far as the lyrics are concerned our drummer Kusch is the mastermind in that regard.

    • What inspires you when you’re writing the new material?

    Kusch: We are quite an emotional and intense group of people with a tendency to

    Olli Singer - Guitars
    Olli Singer – Guitars

    incorporate our personal experiences in our music. There’s a lot of rage and yearning

    involved, it’s about loss. But there’s also a lot of resolve, defiance and hope to it. This is what we do and we won’t let ourselves be destroyed by anybody but ourselves (laughs). That said we always make sure that our songs are not of the “woe is me” variety. It is important to us that our lyrics relate to people of all walks of life so they hopefully can identify not only with the music but with the words as well.

    • Describe the new sound, is it so different from Krypteria?

    Ji-In: ATSC is much rougher and it’s more about the synergy of organic rock instruments and

    electronical elements. We like to think that we still have good melodies, though. That’s really important to each of us.

    • Who “invented” the name of the band?

    Ji-In: Actually, we chose And Then She Came because we wanted people to think, to find

    their own interpretation as far as the meaning of the name is concerned. Like in life there’s

    always more than just one side to a story, more than just one truth behind a headline. Even

    with all the information out there you still have to come to your own conclusion. For instance, I think about the name in a totally different way than some of the guys do.

    • The artwork is impressive, who created it?

    Ji-In: We were fortunate to get Dirk Rudolph aboard. He worked for Rammstein, Bryan

    Adams, Apocalyptica and many others before, and he is a maestro in his field. I love his

    excellent sense for profound beautiful art. And that’s what he did with our cover: He combined strength and a high expressive power with subtle aesthetics.

    • You’re currently touring with Arch Enemy, are you excited?

    Kusch: We are more than excited about this! After all, we get tour with a red-hot act which is

    always challenging and beautiful at the same time. And as an added bonus we’re on the road

    with excellent musicians who happen to be great people as well. See, Alissa and the boys

    have been extremely supportive, and so far their fans seem to dig our stuff, too. We could

    not be any happier.

    • And Then She Came, Frank Stumvoll, Bass guitar
      And Then She Came, Frank Stumvoll, Bass guitar

      Alissa White-Gluz (Arch Enemy) and Jen Majura (Evanescence) are guests in this

    album, was it hard to work with such musicians?

    Ji-In: We’ve known them for a couple of years now and what I love about them, besides the fact that both of them are very strong performers, is that they are uncomplicated and super kind and sweet. Alissa is an impressive warrior on stage but when we asked her if she would be interested in growling a special part of “Five Billion Lies” she didn’t even hesitate. Jen is

    awesome in so many ways and I love her guitar solo in “Spit it out”. I am very proud to have these two women as fantastic representatives of our gender on our album.

    • Who would be part of your wish-list guest-appearances for the next album?

    Kusch: Wow, we’re still trying to digest the fact that we have Jen and Alissa on our current record. I mean, it’s our debut album, how lucky can a new band be?

    • Any plans to play live in our part of Europe? (Especially, Bulgaria?)

    Ji-In: As far as touring is concerned there will be shows all over Europe, in Asia and in South America as well. We are stoked about the fact that promoters seem to want us, especially because a couple of months ago nobody knew this band even existed.

    Kusch: We are well aware of the fact that you guys love your Rock and Metal, and that you bring a lot of energy to the shows, as we’ve experienced it ourselves before. And that’s what it’s all about, so we definitely plan on taking And Then She Came to Eastern Europe. And yes, that includes Bulgaria, too.

    • I know that your first album just came out, but I’m waiting for the next one. Do you have any songs for the second album ready?

    Ji-In: Yes indeed. We already have a bunch of new songs we are very excited about. But for now we are completely focused on taking good care of our ‘first child‘, our debut album. So we need to get And Then She Came on the road and soon, it’s what drives us. And that’s exactly what we’ll be doing this summer and beyond.

    And Then She Came
    And Then She Came
    • I want to thank you very much for the interview and I wish good luck to all of you and the band!

    Ji-In: Thank you, Orleff. We cannot wait to learn what your readers think of our debut album. So give it a shot and maybe share your thoughts with us on our Facebook page. We love communicating with you, so drop us a line or two, and hopefully sooner rather than later we’ll meet at an ATSC show and get a chance to chat a bit face to face.

     

     

    Follow ATSC in Facebook: facebook.com/andthenshecame or visit the official site: www.andthenshecame.com