interview with Sacred Gate
Who started the band? I started the band, together with our vocalist Jim and ex-drummer Holger Zimmermann in 2008.
Tell us a brief introduction of who you are? Theband consists of me on the Lead Guitars, Jim Over on Vocals, Peter Beckers on Bass, Björn Walde on the Rhythm Guitars and Christian Wolf on the drums.
Where are you from? Theband is based in Mönchengladbach/Germany. Me and Jim are Greeks but we live since many years in Germany, and the rest of the guys are Germans.
How did you meet? I know Jim since 1994, we founded together a band named MADE OF IRON in 1999 and played in that band until 2005. We met Peter in 2008 as we were searching for Bass player for Sacred Gate, and Christian and Björn in 2010.
What was the plan when you started the band? We wanted to play the music we like to hear and of course to record our songs, release as many albums as possible and play a lot of concerts.
Explain to those who have not heard you, how does your music? Sacred Gate is a traditional Metal band, we have also some Power Metal/Teutonic Metal elements in our music, so everyone who likes bands like Iron Maiden, Iced Earth, Manowar or Primal Fear, will enjoy our music too.
Each was led first gig?/Where were off last gig? The first Gig was in 2009 and the last on 28.03.2014 in Siegburg/Germany with Wizard, Balls Gone Wild and Dragonsfire.
Who writes the songs?/Who does the music? I write all the lyrics. I wrote also all the music for the first 2 albums. We are working at the moment on the third one, and Björn has wrote also the music for 2 songs.
Good and bad sides of the band? We work hard to reach a high level and we always give 100% on the stage…
What are the main themes or topics for most of your songs? Themes about heaven , hell, wars, mythical themes, historical battles, stuff like that.
Have you released any album or single? Yes, we released an EP in 2011, and our first album When Eternity Ends in 2012, and the second album Tides of War in 2013.
What do you sell for merchendise? Except the cd’s of course, we sell T-shirts and patches.
What does it cost? Between 8 and 13 Euros, we have a shop in our website where fans can buy the whole stuff.
Have you done any music videos? Unfortunately not till now, but maybe in the future. It is a matter of money and at the moment we invest money on good cd productions.
How old were you when you started with music? I started listening to Heavy Metal when i was 14 years old.
When did you decide to focus on the music? When i was 17, i started playing the guitar and i joined my first band when i was 22.
What are your dreams with the band? Have a lot of fun, enjoy this time, record and release albums and play live as much as we can.
What record do you work with? We are on METAL ON METAL RECORDS, which is a label from Italy.
What's places you can play on the "Mönchengladbach - Germany"? Well, there are not too much places to play. One club where we played a lot in the last years, closed a year ago. There are maybe another 2-3 clubs where metal bands organize concerts.
How tags you for a show? We organize some gigs by ourselves or together with other bands. We also know some promoters who invite us when they organize concerts.
What are your two big favorite songs you done? My favourite songs are THE REALM OF HELL from the first album and PATH TO GLORY from the second album.
What do you do besides the band and the music? All of us have normal jobs, me and Björn are selfemployed, the other guys work in different companies.
How important are your fans? Very important, without fans there can’t be any band. We respect them for coming to the gigs and buying our cd’s to support us. We always give 100% at the concerts, so they have a good time and a lot of fun.
What is the funniest thing a fan did for you? We have some very loyal fans who come to every show to see us…about something funny..hm, i don’t remeber something at the moment.
How old were you at your first concert you saw? I was 16 and it was SLAYER on their Decade of Aggression tour 1991.
How old were you at your first gig? I think it was 1998 and i was 23.
Besides your music style you play what do you like the music still enjoy listening to? I listen everything, from Heavy Metal to Black metal, there are a lot of talented bands which make great music, like Amon Amarth from your country which is one of my favourite bands.
Do you always the same songs live or vary it? We play always 5-6 songs which are our classics and people want to hear them, and we add some more to complete the set. But it depends also on how much playing time we have. When we support other bands we play only 45 minutes, which means only 6 or 7 songs.
What countries have you played in? As far only in Germany, but we are planning some concerts in Belgium and the Netherlands.
What is your pre-show ritual? We don’t have one, but you gave me a good idea haha.
Best/worst performed gig? Some gigs are amazing, because of the great stages, the light show and also because of the fans reactions, especially the open air concerts. I can’t say we had a bad gig so far.
Have you toured somewhat over the years 2008 to 2014? No, we had no tour, only single shows and some open air concerts. Music is not our profession, so we all have our jobs and it is not so easy to go on tour. After all, a tour costs a lot of money.
How many people usually come to your gig? At small shows about 100-150 people.
What do you think of that they go to download music from the internet instead of buying records? I say, if they like the band, they should support it by buying the cd or at least some merchandise. The bands invest a lot of money and time in rehearsals and studios and it is not fair to download their music for free. They can check the bands by listening to some songs on the internet, that is ok. But downloading complete albums is not fair to the band.
What is the first step to a new song? Most times i write the music first, and then i try to write lyrics that fit to the music, sometimes i work at the same time on lyrics and music.
What are your web pages? The official page is www.sacredgate.net and our facebook site is www.facebook.com/sacredgatemetal
What are your plans for the future? At the moment we work on the third album, we hope to record it this year and release it next year. We are going to play on a great festival in May called “A Chance for Metal“ and some other shows in the summer.