Interviews zijn voor Kruger, zoals voor zoveel bands, een noodzakelijk kwaad. Zo kreeg de band zoveel zinloze vragen over de band naam te verduren dat ze uit pure verveling een wedstrijd uitschreven onder de fans om een leuke betekenis te verzinnen! Soms is het vraag en antwoord spel echter wel degelijk nuttig. Kletsend met zanger Renaud bedachten we namelijk niet alleen een nieuw levens motto voor de band, maar kwamen we we ook achter dat de landgenoten van Knut deze zomer een nieuwe plaat gaan uitbrengen! Maar eerst hebben we het over 'For Death, Glory And The End Of The World', want die schijf verdient ook zeker alle aandacht van de vooruitstrevende metal fan.
Hi guys, how is Kruger doing these days? Pretty good ! it’s been quite a hassle to have everything ready on time for the new album, but here we are !
You just released the new album 'For Death. Glory, And The End Of The World', are you fully satisfied with the way it came into being? It’s too early to really have any hindsight on this new one. I guess it’s ok – pretty different from our previous studio effort, although the recording / mixing / mastering conditions were very similar (same dudes at the desk, same places). In good or bad – you tell us ! What we can surely say is that making up “for death…” has been much more comfortable than by the past : we spent ages on the recording and could finalise the most stupid, tiny details!
Tell me a little bit about the presentation around the new album, the press photos for example; you guys look like a bunch of vicars! Combined with the golden logo it all comes across a bit “over the top”, was that intentional? I personally adore those “mormons” photos! The less we look like the basic metal band, the happier I am!
Could you tell me a little bit about the title and what kind of message you would like to tell your audience? No message at all, or if there is one, it’s deeply buried under tons of cynics and jokes. We usually try to run away from the usual metal / hardcore visuals (or try to make fun out of them), but this time we allowed ourselves to look a bit like Entombed with a scary, epic title, and a medieval cover. We cracked – but it’s so good to drown in the clichés, in the end.
b]The new record sounds a bit less “agitated”, and more “laid-back”, at least for a Kruger record! Is there a reasonable explanation for this change in mood?
Okay – I’m not sure it’s less “agitated”? What I can tell is that this album is maybe a bit richer harmony-wise (guitars and vocals mostly), so I might sound less frontal than ‘Redemption…’; but once more, we look forward to hearing what people think of this new one, because we are having a hard time to judge by ourselves.
Could you tell me a little bit about working with Kurt Ballou again? Were you not tempted to go somewhere else this time? Well, he is such a cool, reliable, competent dude than he was the first option for us – and he did something totally different than he last time we worked with him. It’s nice to rely on the same people and finally have a different result.
b]It is kind of interesting to me that you chose him again, but still managed to completely change the sound of the album. I think it sounds a lot less Entombed-like and much more atmospheric, what were the major changes you made
No idea! You’re right, ‘Redemption…’ was very Swedish-sounding, and this news one is much clearer, cleaner, wider. I think Kurt did not want to repeat what he did last time – and we’re worked a lot more on arrangements during pre-production. The rest is… magic!
I saw you performing an amazing set at Roadburn 2008, could you describe what it was like to play there? Did you see any cool bands yourselves? Roadburn rules. It’s so rare to see a festival with such a bill, such artistic boldness, and such a great spirit. I can’t remember very well, since I’m rarely a good audience on the nights we play ourselves, but I noticed Wolves In The Throne Room, that I saw there for the first time. Great band.
Switzerland is really building up a name in good underground heavy music; Kruger, Knut, Zatokrev, Impure Wilhelmina...the list is long! Could you speak of a vibrant scene in your country, or is it just seperate groups without much communication? We pretty much know every band around – but, like Holland, Switzerland is a small country divided into smaller language regions, so the network is more fragile. But sure, we’re shared the stage with all the bands you mention – nice dudes!
It was awesome to see you playing at Roadburn, when will we see you again overhere? We don’t decide, but would surely be amazed to come back there !
Speaking about Knut, have you played a lot of shows together? They are almost legendary in the underground, yet they never really pushed through, by touring a lot or releasing a lot of records. Are you afraid of ending up like them; respected but in fact quite small? Haha, I’ll tell them! I think “Respected and in fact quite small” is perfect. If we can get close to what these guys have achieved, we’ll have succeeded. Since more than ten years (a new album in June, watch out!), Knut have been playing music just for the sake of it, never had any career plans, but have kept full integrity and never gave a shit about expectations about them. Now that’s exactly how playing in a band should be like, don’t you think ?
Are there any plans to go bring Kruger to the US sometime? I am sure your kind of approach in music is appreciated over there. How are your record deals over thereby the way? Listenable Records have distribution in US, and we already had nice feedback in US press on “Redemption…” – but flying overseas to play is a big piece to swallow when it comes to budget and band availability. I’d be glad to go there, though, I heard it’s as harsch as UK, but with twice the driving hours… My dreamland!
Could you name the most important Kruger-goals for the near future? Tour this album as much as we toured the previous one – for me, all this is only about getting my ass in the van and drive all over Europe for miserable fees. It’s addictive…
And the long-term? How would you want to go down in history as a band Well, if anyone remembers us in ten years time as a band who did cool shows and quite cool records, that’ll be enough for me to be proud of. Your “respected but quite small” quote is now our new motto !
You played an amazing cover of Kyuss's 'Hurricane' on Roadburn, do you play any other covers at times? Is there perhaps one song you would want to cover some day in the future? It depends on the mood – we did a Neurosis cover lately (with two drummers!), for example, but we’ll focus on our own stuff, I guess, since we have now soooo many songs by now.
Thanks a lot for your time, hopefully see you soon in The Netherlands! Sure! We LOVE Netherlands – all shows we played there were a treat!
Switzerland is really building up a name in good underground heavy music; Kruger, Knut, Zatokrev, Impure Wilhelmina...the list is long! Could you speak of a vibrant scene in your country, or is it just seperate groups without much communication?
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