interview with TIP THE BALANCE
Have any of you played in other bands? Oh yeah - due to the fact that Tip The Balance is a project, all of us are active in other bands. Worh mentioning here is "Janus Experiment" which is also a progressive rock band that uses the German language to transport their message.
How is it that you started playing music? Bastian: I don't know about the others but it started with an ordinary flute with me - I loved to play the flute and soon I began to learn playing the piano. On the keys I could start composing my own songs and it was fun... I was at the age of 10 then ;)
What are your names? / Who plays what? / How old are you?
Here is the cast of Tip The Balance:
"Good" Vocals: Torsten Borrman (Janus Experiment) Guitar: Robert Moosdorf (Janus Experiment) Keys + Programming: Heiko Mürkens
"Evil" Vocals: Becky Gaber (ex. My Inner Burning) Guitar: Uwe König Keys + Programming: Bastian Knochel
Special Appearance Bass Guitar on both sides: Markus Bothe (Janus Experiment) Vocals on "Dawn of Creation": Bastian Knochel Solo on "Wardrums": Florian Haack Solo on "Pain": Ilja Prinz
All Lyrics by Tibor Wahl
Artwork by Jens Offergeld
Heiko Mürkens - Father of Good (producer)
Bastian Knochel - Father of Evil (producer)
Age is just a number and most of us are in their end thirties...
Did you make music even when you were young? Of course we did - we are all very passionate in playing our instruments and it has been a long way to come to the point where we are today.
Where are you from? Germany - our members are spread over the whole Country.
What year did the band form? The first idea of the band formed in 2013 but in 2014 it first became reality.
What's your style of genre? Progressive Metal (and a mixture of thrash metal combined with power metal)
What inspires you? Life and a good horror movie from time to time.
How often and where do you rehearse? Unfortunately we do not rehearse - Tip The Balance is a studio project. During recording we met us person, but after that there was no real interaction regarding rehearsals.
Do you have other interests of work outside the band? Everything is relates to music somehow. Either it is playing in other bands or producing bands in our studios.
Are you looking for a label, and what are your thoughts around that? It would be nice to have some help in distributing our album. We are very proud of it an we think it should be heard around the world - without a real label that puts some effort in marketing there is no real hope to get more sales and more fans. Sad but true.
What made you decide to make this music? For most of us it was listening to their heroes in music - we wanted to become like them in our youth. Of course we didn't at leats not ow.
What are your songs about? Tip The Balance is all about the eternal war between Good vs Evil - it is somehow on an abstract level, but in the end it is a simple as that: There will be Evil and there will be Good - none of them will ever exist without the other.
Who does the composing and writes the lyrics? Tibor did all the lyrics and Heiko and Bastian did most of the composing stuff.
Do you start with the music or the lyrics? We started with the lyrics this time and made the music fit to the lyrics.
Do you compose in a certain enviroment? Yes - we do the composing in our studios. This environment inspires us.
What language do you sing in? English
Where do you plan to gig the comming year? Well Tip The Balance is a studio project - we do not plan to play live, but we will not say no to a real good chance to present the album to a live audience. So we will see what time has to offer.
Where can people buy your merchandise? For now there is just the album, but have a look at http://tipthebalance.bandcamp.com there may be some merch available in the future.
What do you think about people downloading music instead of buying records now a days? We don't think about them - the ones who downloaded our album wouldn't have bought it anyway. It's part of the game.
What do you think of my work? What you do is awesome - you give support to bands and prrovide a plattform for publicity. You do this without being paid for - at least we did not pay you.
So it must be something your heart beats for - and that is really important in today's music biz. Do something your heart beats for. Thank you!
Is it easier to find inspiration from older bands, or bands that are more active today? For me (Bastian) it is easier to get inspiration from older bands - they were more unique than the currently "in" bands. Not only in pop music but also in metal music a lot of the bands sound very similiar to each other. That hadn't been always like this.
What have been your biggest obstacles? Keeping Tip The Balance together because of the great distance (regarding the kilometers) between all the members.
What advice would you give other bands or artists? Stay true to yourself - sound like you and not like any other band you like - be unique!
Do you have any new material? There are lots of ideas for a following up album - we will see.
What are your web sites? www.tipthebalance.de
How can people reach you? Visit our website or go to our facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/tipthebalancemusicto stay in contact with us.
