by Martin Popoff
Was this Nation concept something that established itself early on in the project? "Yes, we started really early with that," explains Kisser. "Even when we were writing the music we had the idea, especially the thing with the posters and the fans and stuff and having the flag and connecting everything to the album. Different parts of this nation, every movement in it is connected to each other. That's the beauty of the idea."
Musically, the album seems somehow more atmospheric, with a greater sense of dynamic. One notices many guitar tones, a lot of spaces, some cool experimentation on the bass, Derrick stretching out, Igor as well. Andreas gives his sense of the direction on the album. "I think it's more musical, and not as percussive as Roots or Against. Now we're much more comfortable and confident and Derrick is also more confident in his abilities as a singer, using his voice, his melodies. It really opened a lot of different fields for us that we never had a chance to work before. So it opened up what we can do with the guitars and bass. So I think the album is more diverse, because the concept is really wide and we had to write music that fit with that idea. It's hard to compare to Against. That was an album made in such difficult times. It was difficult to write and record. We were looking for a manager and then a new singer. So pretty much, that album is just an explosion of anger against everybody (laughs). We really didn't have too much ambition. The main thing was just to keep the band together. And now I think Nation is a reflection of what we have. We have a band again, with a singer and everything. Everybody works together. That helps a lot to focus on the musical side of it."
Did you set up any props in the studio for atmosphere? "Not really. We don't like to feel like we're at home in the studio. I don't know, it feels like you are trying to create an illusion or something. We really like to focus on the sounds and the music. We just have our equipment set up and we've got some pictures put up with some nice Brazilian asses and titties, funny stuff, football, soccer stuff. But not really all over. We really didn't create an environment."
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