@pands_music #interviews @HanzelUndGretyl about music, life, touring, DIYing music, and about upcoming @TheCluny gig.

Hanzel Und Gretyl Interview

Described as a “Neue Deutsche Härte” (new German hardness/ dance metal) band, Hanzel und Gretyl are stopping off in Newcastle on October 15 at The Cluny during their European Tour.

We had a little chat with Kaiser Von Loopy and Vas Kallas (both actually American) :

JO: Hi, we’re looking forward to seeing you at the Cluny in October, looking forward to your European tour?

Vas: Greetings! YES!  We’re looking forward to our yearly adventure throughout Europe and very stoked that we are coming back to the UK and this time to Newcastle!! The last time was in 2007 as support to Cradle of Filth. That was 8 years ago! That’s nuts! I remember it being crazy good and! I also remember that Cronos from Venom was sitting in the back lounge of our tour bus as I walked in nonchalantly and then acted like a silly fan girl. Yes! Newcastle we are ready!!

KAIZER VON LOOPY: It's been way too long!! I can hardly wait to sample the Nukie Broon!!!  in a repeated fashion!! 

JO: What can we expects from your stage show?

Vas: Well, we’ve been a two-piece band now for 5 years. We crank up the uber a bit more with this format. Distorted bass loud guitar and a lot of attitude. We will most likely do songs from our last CD “Black Forest Metal” and all the super hits from most of our CD’s over the years! We intend to please and serve beer while we do this. No cocktails, just bier.

KAIZER VON LOOPY: in an intimate setting we like a fair amount of crowd interaction in the set!! that sorta thing always goes over particularly well in the UK as crowds there are always up for a good time!!During songs like  "DAS BOOT" or "BAVARIAN BIERHAUS BLOOD" we normally offer German beers to our drinking age audience but I'm guessing i'll be well stocked with Nukie Broons!! i just like saying Nukie Broon!! let's face it, it's a great beer!! you get hammered pretty quick!!  

JO: (Loves German Bier) You’ve been through a lot of change since 1993. How do you think your writing has changed? And also your perceptions of the music industry?

Vas:  Yes, we started out in 1993 when the music Industry was a completely different animal, as we all know.  We had labels fighting over us, tour support, huge money advances, publicity and major touring. Today we find ourselves with Metropolis Records but mostly on our own for tour support, publicity and management. 
As far as the music and art of writing it’s every changing cause there are no rules. We began as an experimental band with no boundaries of self expression. Complete innocence. We still do that to this day, but just a little bit smarter and a lot wiser. We’ve gone from experimental to techno dance metal to biker rock German metal, stomp punk metal and now industrial black metal and onwards to noise metal. Who knows what kind of crazy we will conjure up next!
We are very fortunate that our fans keep coming back to see us!!

KAIZER VON LOOPY: The music industry is certainly an ever-morphing entity and it can be rather cold and unforgiving! you need to develop deft survival skills to stick around. Around 2006 i thought it would be a good idea given the scaled back nature of things to simply book smaller venues and be some sorta traveling oktoberfest themed metal bar band!! i wrote a song called "FUKKEN UBER DEATH PARTY". the idea was have the proverbial "good time all the time" despite everything in life and the world going to hell in a hand basket and to drink till you die in protest of it!!   probably not a great idea in  reality but it seems to be a crowd pleaser!! (more so than a bar owner pleaser!!)  all this being said our writing of late has taken a turn for the satanic!! adding a dash of the dark arts to our existing  melange of uber madness was just the thing take our wonderfully nihilistic oktoberfest to the next (lower) level !!  


JO: You’ve supported such stars of the alternative scene, as Cradle of Filth and Marylin Manson. Don’t you think it’s time for an alternative act like yourselves to reach the dizzy heights they did, or is music TV just not able to give people the chance to see/hear these videos any more? I miss MTV2 ! Of course the internet has opened up to a whole new audience..

VAS: Yes, we should be on that level with the Mansons, and the Cradles. We’ve been at it now for 20 + years. But even though we toured with those bands and hobnobbed with their managers and such, they all expressed interest in helping us but nothing ever came of it. Therefore we learned to take care of the business ourselves and not rely on anyone else. TCB!!! This i believe has made us stronger and able to deal with the highs and lows of the industry. 
We are fiercely DIY.  Even today booking agents approach us with promises and do absolutely nothing. In the meantime we book our own shows and tours ourselves with greater results than any “big name” booking agent.  It’s a hell of a lot of work, but this is who we are.
…oh yes, the question about music on TV. Well, if there was an Uber Musik Channel  we would DEMAND to be on it!

KAIZER VON LOOPY: Yes, we have been very fortunate to tour extensively with what I'd have to say are the biggest names in the genre! and we have done so without ever having a manager in the 20 years we've been a touring band. We are however always on the lookout for a manager or some unusually perceptive person of influence that has the same sense of  danger and reckless abandon as we do but at the same time enough composure and intellect (satan) to get us to those dizzying heights!  yes, I think it's time!  \m/ 


JO: Your name suggests an interest in Grimm fairy tales. Have you any advice for small children who encounter a gingerbread house in the woods? This is important stuff to know.

Vas: Don’t eat the cookies, they are not Gluten free.

KAIZER VON LOOPY: know what you're getting into!!
Try not to get eaten!! always have a pocket full of breadcrumbs and don't trust old ladies with candy!!  

JO: And finally a new album due out later in the year Satanik Germanik, is everything going well for the release? Can we expect any ballads? What sort of album will this one be?

VAS:  We are writing it now as we speak, and it’s still in the incubating period,  but we promise it to be Satanik and Germanik with a dark mystical noise intensity….. It will piss off the parents for sure and we promise no ballads!

KAIZER VON LOOPY: It's pretty much in the title! Expect our most Sataniky and Germaniky offering to date!! this is basically on open letter to satan written in backwards German (for extra evil) to materialize with a standard rich and famous contract for us to sign!!  I think it might have gone to his spam folder though... 

VAS:: LOLOLOL!! Satanic Spam Filter!! Sounds like a new side project!


JO: Haha! Sounds rather epic.Thanks for talking to us!

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