Interview "The Vault" by Bosko Radisic
NO
SISSY STUFF
-Can
you tell me when and how your band was formed?
Birgit:
No sissy stuff was founded in the summer of `96. After a lot of bands and other
musical activities it was time for me to realize my own music. Therefore I
searched for other musicians with the same intention. Suddenly I found out that
the solution was nearer than I expected: My sisters Katja and Daniela! After
some disappointments we finally found the drummer we had been looking for.
During the first rehearsal with Gudrun we
already composed our first song. A complete band history will be added on our
English web page www.nosissystuff.de
soon.
-There
are a lot of metal bands with a female singer, or bassist, but you're the first
metal band I know that is
No
sissy stuff: Oh, we know some all female bands: Phantom Blue (California), Vixen
(California), Drain (Sweden), Kittie (Canada), Sacralis (Germany), Brazen (Italy),
Mimic (North Carolina) and we think there are many more.
-What
made you start playing this music?
Birgit: I started making music in my childhood and when I grew up my favourite
music was metal and so I started playing metal. My sisters had no other chance
– they grew up with metal.
Gudrun: Me as a drummer can only say that I have played boring dance-music
before and Heavy Metal is a challenge for me because I can experiment a lot and
there are more possibilities than in some other music styles.
-Do
you think metal is exclusively reserved for men? Is this the first step towards
including more women in the
No
sissy stuff: There have been other female bands before us, for example „The
Runaways“ in 1975, and there will always be some female bands. An integration
has never been necessary for that. We think metal is reserved for people who
love this kind of music.
-Was
it hard to record your first album?
No
sissy stuff: It was hard work to prepare the recordings but it was fun at the
same time! And we think that we did a good job even though it is our first album.
We have never expected that so many people would show big interest in us and buy
our CD.
-Are
there any record companies interested in your work so far?
No
sissy stuff: May be…but we don’t know anything about it yet.
-I
see you've done lots of gigs throughout Germany. Were your male colleagues
helpful or have they neglected
No
sissy stuff: We are glad if somebody helps us but we don’t let anybody neglect
us. Since we play shows our male colleagues supported us and we did good work
together.
-What
was the response of the audience to your music?
No sissy stuff: The
audience is always curious. Many people who have seen one of our shows buy our
CD and come again to other shows.
-You
have some very interesting lyrics on your album. It seems like trains play
important role in your life.
Katja:
Trains is an interesting compatible picture that hides a lot of meanings. I like
the imagination that the rails are some neurons, the trains are the thoughts and
the passengers are like the instance in us that judges about the thoughts, but
they could also be a picture for new impressions and new experiences.
I found this picture while I was working for some new lyrics on a
railway- station.
-In
"None of Us", which I consider to be the best song right after
"Empty", you make some statements about
Katja: We are not against organised
religion as long as it doesn’t harm
other people. Everyone of us has her own believe. The
text of “None of us” is about my
search for my ,religion’. It consists only of questions but
there are no real answers. I observed how other people dealt with their
believe , but this didn’t show a right way for me.
For us all it’s hard to believe in something that we don’t
feel.
-Birgit
has done the booklet design. Is that what she does for living or was that the
first time she'd done this
Birgit: It has been the first time doing this kind of work, but I have always
been interested in arts and so I tried to connect the cover artwork with our
lyrics.
-Do
you all have jobs? I can see Katja and Daniela are twins, born in 1979. Do they
go to some college?
No
sissy stuff: Gudrun works as a taxi driver, Birgit works after studying arts for
a while as a key account assistant at an internet company. Daniela is studying
laser technic and Katja is studying business management.
-One
of the interesting things is that there are no romantic songs. Just hard and
loud metal. Definately "no sissy
No sissy stuff: Romance doesn’t fit to the band name. That doesn’t mean that
we don’t like romance but there are already so many romantic songs that there
is no need for us to deal with this theme.
-Your
thanks list for the bands is quite extensive. Is German underground scene really
that vast?
No
sissy stuff: Yes, it is. We have a really big underground scene with lots of
really good bands. We mentioned only a few bands we have played some gigs with
in our booklet.
-What
types of music do you prefer? Are you just metal oriented?
Birgit:
I listen to metal for 16 years now and it’s my preferred music style but I
also worked on projects with different music styles.
Gudrun: In every kind of music there may be a good song and if you are only
concentrated on one style you may miss something really good…
-What
was the response of the press to
your debut?
No
sissy stuff: We had a lot of positive resonance and also some negative
critics. Music will always be a matter of taste and you can’t please everybody.
-Have
you had any unpleasant situations with the guys from the audience on your gigs?
No
sissy stuff: No, never.
-Do
you read 'zines and do you consider them the important part of the scene?
Birgit:
I bought my first Metal Hammer in 1985 and I think magazines are a very
important part of the scene, `cause they give the bands the possibility to tell
people about their attitudes and the reader has the chance to get more
information about new bands.
-What
are your plans for the future? Will there be a tour?
No sissy stuff: We hope to be on tour soon `cause we love live shows. At the
moment we play diverse shows all over Germany and we plan to play in other
European countries next summer.
-Do
you have plans for a full length album and do you have some songs prepared?
No
sissy stuff: We are working on our next album that will be a full length album
called “End time artists” including a ballad called “Eternity“, and the
songs “Dance“, “River” and “Waves of life”. We are going to record
it in winter.
-Thank
you for the interview and I wish you girls the best of luck in your future work.
No
sissy stuff: Thank you for all these nice questions, we enjoyed answering them!
Keep up your work!