interview with Sonic Reign
What made you call the band "Sonic Reign"? We wanted the combination of a modern word with a more old school sounding word in order to reflect the sounds we try to combine in our music. Sonic Reign sounded pretty catchy so we sticked to it.
How was the band formed? Nothing spectacular. I met my old friend Sebastian whom I hadn't heard of for years and we started talking about the music we like. We obviously had similar preferences so I joined a band where Sebastian was playing the drums. Melodic stuff with keyboards. I wasn't much into it, but it was cool to play in a band with a „dark“ music style. We both wanted to play more brutal stuff and that was the point when we started to rehease without the other band members.
Can you tell about your band? We play Black Metal. Started as two guys and will be joined by Matthias Jell (Ex-Dark Fortress-singer) on our next release. We are fucking slow songwriters. We live pretty far away from each other so we rehearse not very often. We don't play live. We have a deal with Apostasy Records. Yes, I think that's it pretty much!
Where are all band members from?/Who does what in the band? Sebastian plays drums and leads a studio in Mellrichstadt. The band was formed there and is still based there. I play the other instruments and live close to Trier. I'm not sure where Matthias lives, hehe. He'll join on vocals as I mentioned before.
What was the ambitions of the band when you started? Just to do music the way we like it and to have a good time rehearsing. Which is basically what our ambitions are today.
Could you explain your music to someone that haven't heard you? Black Metal with Thrash influences. We were heavily inspired by Satyricon's Rebel Extravaganza, Thorns and Emperor.
Who writes your songs?/ who writes the music who writes lyrics? We write them together while rehearsing. I often come up with ideas at home and we work these out together. I did the lyrics in the past and on the last album we already used some lyrics written by Matthias.
Why did you pick that particular style?/What are your songs about? It came naturally since it is the style we liked for many years. Why should someone play anything else then what she / he likes? The songs deal mostly with personal freedom, individualism, rebellion and so on.
Have you made any albums?/If yes what are they? „The decline portrait“ (EP), „raw dark pure“ and „monument in black“.
How old are you?/At what age did you start playing? We're all over 30 years old. Sebastian and me started playing instruments with about 6 years. He started with drums whereas I started with piano and added the guitar at the age of 11.
How old were you guys when you first stood on stage? We never played live with SR.
What year was the band started? 1997/98.
Witch band is the best you´ve seen? Behemoth in Würzburg. I think that was in 2007. They had an incredible engery.
What are the plans for the rest of the year? Maybe start writing new songs. But we take it slow.
What are your sources of inspiration? Some music I listened to lately, news, books, discussions. Pretty much everything can be influential on how we write music. There is no formula.
What's the first step when making a new song? Doing some basic riffs that fit together.
What would be your dreams for the band? To release another cool album in the future.
Besides your own music, what genres and bands do you listen to? A lot of classic stuff, Hard Rock, Prog Rock, Punk, Rock n roll.
Have you been part of any other projects? I did some guestvocals for a band called „Stellar Master Elite“ from Trier. Besides that I did nothing except my band.
Have you been in any other bands? I played in a cover band when I was 16.
What do you work with outside of the band and the music? I work as independent graphic designer and do artworks, merch-designs, logos and so on. I love that job. If anyone is interested check my website at www.irrleuchten.de
Do you have any webpages? Www.sonicreign.de
