interview with JTR Sickert
How was the band formed and can you tell me something about JTR Sickert’ s history? We started some years ago by an idea of Rez, the guitar and the “synth player”,and in a few time we recorded a 4 track demo at the Fear Studios (It), entitled “Everything is growing old”, which received good appraisal from the most important heavy metal magazines and webzines.
Almost at the same time, we were taking on live gigs with a series of concerts with renowned Italian bands such as The Family, Godiva, Macbeth and the well known German band Das Ich, taking part in the second edition of the DarkFest, as opening act for Dope Star Inc. and playing at the Metal Legion Attack, sharing the stage with Sadist, Vision Divine, Domine and Node.
The band’s first album, “You deserve panic”, also recorded at the Fear Studios, published by the independent label “Bagana Records/Edel, came out in 2011, and was followed by the video “ Crystal night”, promo single of the album..
In the 2011 and 2012, we toured together with “Theatres des Vampires”, during their European Tour, which visited countries like Germany, Italy, Slovenia, Austria, Hungary, Turkey , Czech Republic, gathering fans along the way.
Thanks to the fortunate acquaintance with TDV, I sang a duet with Sonya Scarlet during their performance at the Viadana Open Air Festival 2011 with the Swedish band “ Dark Tranquillity and during their performance at Leipzig Gotik Treffen….”
Where are all band members from?/Who does what in the band? We are 5, Rez, guitar and synth player, Pora, the drummer, Klaus, bass player ,Emy, female voice and me . We came from middle and north Italy.
What was the ambitions of the band when you started? Making our music and travel the world to play it. We believe , and everyday we remember it, that “ Without music life would be a mistake”. .
Could you explain your music to someone that haven't heard you? We mix metal with electronics influences, gothic and dark atmosphere together with sophisticated groove
Who writes your songs?/ who writes the music who writes lyrics? Usually Rez starts with groove and melody, using synth and guitar, afterwards I add voice melody and lyrics, so the band starts to arrange the song.
What's good/bad with the band?/What genre do you feel you are? we really love and listen everything (more or less) because everything inspires us. Emy, for example, is studying Opera at Music Academy , Rez was an electronic Dj before starting JTR project, Pora plays also death metal music, Klaus is a rock and funky bass player and I sing rock, dark and electronic music.
Why did you pick that particular style?/What are your songs about? The first album was a concept album focused on the crimes of Jack the Ripper. We talked about it as if the Ripper was still among us. For us, “Jack “ no longer uses the knife but hits in a more deceitful way, through using and spreading some messages . These messages, this “propaganda”, convey and force people to kill. Even the music of the first album had darker aspects. The new album, due out next year, it is certainly more intimate, it talks about us, especially we talk about our obsessions and excesses that sometimes we are obliged to use to get away from us. It 's definitely a schizophrenic album with a lot of music influences.
Do you have any clips on YouTube? We had one clip taken from you deserve panic album, “crystal night” song, and nowadays we are working on the new clip, for OBLIVION song.
What places will you be playing in in the imidate future? We are working on a mini European tour on February with Snovonne, a band we have met during the last tour. We became friend and we are so happy to go one more time on tour with them.
Is it always the same songs live? No, especially today, cause we have a new album and we cannot wait to play the news song!
Where do you usually play? Est and middle Europe, the crowd over there is amazing, people love to listen new bands and new music. We like to listen to new bands and new sound around, this is the essence of music.
How do you get psyched up for a gig? the stage is the place where you can be exactly what you want to be. No need anything before to get it, we need only to be there
What are your goals with your music? Express our personality into music and mark people’ s mind with our sensations. Give to people a strong feeling, the sensation that something strange is happening and we are all involved in.
What are your sources of inspiration? As I told you everything inspires us. . We listen a lot of music, we love cinema also and art in general, but firs of all it is our life that inspires us.
How do you feel about the downloading of music instead of buying albums? This is a fact, that’s all and no one can change the spreading of music by the internet. They are the record companies and individual legislators that have the role to take action to regulate the exchange of music in Internet, trying to protect the artists and the music users at the same time. It could be a solution, in part already used, selling individual songs at very low prices so people would persuade to buy music. Otherwise, especially the new band will not be able to have the money to make music.
What would be your greatest fears for the future? we are all so used to living in fear that we're addicted to it and almost do not fear anything. This particular historical period is dominated by fear. sometimes this fear is induced by our government to keep us under control, the result is scared people , forced to live day by day without any future projects. This situation, however, makes us even stronger because what we choose to do today is exactly what we want to do before it all ends, turning our fear into strength.
How important are your fans? Fans give us the chance to go on. they know us through our music, they know us very well. It is a precious and special relationship that we bring with us every day.
What's the funniest/most memorable thing a fan has done for you? They have made small paintings of everyone’ s member, a sort of “caricature”, and we really appreciate that.
Name 2 of your own songs you like at the moment? I can say “ snooty queen” from the new album and “crystal night from the first album.
What do you feel is the best live band you've seen? I can’ t answer. I ‘ ve seen a lot of amazing live bands, as Motorhead, Pantera, Depeche Mode, Prodigy, Korn, Nine Inch Nails, Guns n Roses ( the original ones), Theatres Des Vampires. It ‘s really impossible to choose.
Do you have any webpages? The official website is under construction due to the new album but we have a facebook profile
Any pearls of wisdom for all other bands out there? Do on the stage exactly what you would not dare to do in real life.
Describe your show, visually and musically our show looks like a theatrical performance because we want to create a sort of visual dream on stage. We use special lights and special clothes to “expose” our music to the audience. I firmly believe that live performance should go back to inspire dreams, to hypnotize people, thus creating a kind of parallel universe.
Tell us about upcomming gigs and why we should be at them? We are organizing a mini tour in north-east Europe for the middle /end of febrary, stay tuned , more news coming soon.
How would you describe your sound in one sentence Grotesque.
What is your favorite crappy instrument? Megaphone, absolutely!!!!
Whats your Pre-show ritual? A freezed Jägermeister please, useful for mind and for my throat.