EMQ’s with MYOSOTIS
Hi everyone! Welcome to our new EMQ’s interview with Hamburg, Germany based Modern Metalcore band Myosotis. Huge thanks to them for taking part.
What is your name, what do you play, and can you tell us a little bit about the history of the band?
We are a six-headed Modern Metalcore Band.
Kilian Harrsen – Vocals
Timo Hazerli – Vocals
Max Mäder – Guitar
Calvin Rösicke – Guitar
Julian Seiler – Drums
Thomas Grigo – Bass.
In 2017 Kilian set up an announcement in a local blog for musicians on which everyone replied separately.
Our songs have a wide range which go far beyond classic Metalcore from progressive and very technical part to Jazz influenced rhythms and classical Pop choruses with some electronical backings.
Lyrically we explore the depths of the human mind and process the emotions of love-hate, depression, change and distance and this variety is what we want to convey to our listeners, no matter which kind of music they are usually bound to. It’s about crossing borders but still keeping your own signature.
We combine melodic stanzas and refrains with brutal breakdowns and technical verses contrasted with the passionate guttural and clean vocals.
It only took us 6 month to produce our first EP “Distance” and also if our style was not defined as it is now, we directly had a direction we wanted to follow. The enthusiasm and energy was huge and so we early shared the staged with well-known bands like Meshuggah, First Blood, Wolf Down, Tell You What Now, Awake the Dreamer etc.
How did you come up with your band name?
Actually, Myosotis is the botanical name for a plant, in Germany called “Forget-me-not” and symbolizes love and trust but also has a meaning which stands for farewell. As a gift the flower impresses the whish not to be forgotten and is also used as a grave-flower.
We want to create a feeling of a community for our listeners. Everybody is welcome and has the worth to be remembered and the value as a person to belong to something and to believe in something.
Many people nowadays suffer in silence, in pain and have to face the pressure of society, family, work and other outbound factors alone. With the slogan \\WeAreMyosotis// we want to give them the feeling being part of something, that they can feel being understood.
What country are you from and what is the metal scene like there?
We are based in the beautiful city of Hamburg, Germany!
As the second biggest city in Germany, we also have a bracing scene for many different styles and the different quarters in the city also have different influences on it. Historically you can say that the music scene in Hamburg was always strong for Ska and Punk but in the past also the metal scene made its way out of the underground and is quite present nowadays.
Some local booking agencies, such as MFS-Music, our good friends, are doing a lot of effort to develop the young music scene and to take care that small artists have a chance to stay on stage, since, even though there are a countless number of clubs, they are always fully booked.
What is your latest release (Album, EP, Single, Video)
Our latest release was our EP “Evosia” which came out back in 2018. Evosia stand for “Evolution-Sickness” and treats the fear of development. A lot of people are often afraid of the unknown and hide in order to avoid moving forward. We dedicated this EP to those people and want to encourage them to get out of their nutshells. Change can be intimidating, but change is development and if we´re open to it, we can thrive, and good things will happen.
After “Evosia” we decided to give us and our songs some more time to let them grow and to work on the ideals of Myosotis to make them more meaningful.
Additionally, we reached out for some new partners who took care about our new material. We have been in the studio at Sawdust Recordings with the amazing Christoph Wiezcorek and we worked on new Videos which are about to be released.
Our first single called “What If…” will be released on 17/07/2020 through Blood Blast Distribution. Trailers are already out on our Facebook and Spotify Pages and what we can say so far is that it won`t be the last song this year!
Thematically, “What If…” deals with the question, if you have a dark passenger who pulls you down but sets you free at the same time. Something between life, death and desire.
Who have been your greatest influences?
This is quite difficult to define, since we all have different orientations in the music we listen to.
We come from classically Metalcore and Hardcore as well as Jazz, Prog, Djent and other rhythmical genres but also Pop and Classic.
Actually, the influences for our songs are changing a lot as well and we do not keep the exact same style for longer periods since music is fluent and something that is frequently developing.
Furthermore, we personally are also developing a lot which has a big impact for the band as well.
What first got you into music?
We all have different reasons why we started learning an instrument but one fact which connects us all and why we play in a band, why we want to create our own songs is that we all want to express ourselves in what we are doing and that we want to share this with other people.
Music is a community regardless which genre you want to feel connected to. It`s all about expressions and emotions. We get in touch with so many people, for which we are very grateful, and the people understand our message and they are committed to this message, which means a lot to us.
If you could collaborate with a current band or musician who would it be?
We could name a bunch of bands we would like to share the stage with or to have a feature with.
Current bands we feel connected with or which have a temporarily influence to us are Novelists, Thornhill, Polaris, Plini or Tesseract.
If you could play any festival in the world, which would you choose and why?
That’s an easy pick. Definitely the Download Festival in Japan.
We have personal interest in the Japanese culture and the country itself as well as the people and the way they are living. Therefore, our songs often have a background story based on their culture or habits and in reverse it would be one of our biggest goals to play a tour in Japan or even more at Download Festival.
What’s the weirdest gift you have ever received from a fan?
Our fans are great, and we love meeting them at our shows and luckily, we only received very kind and personal gifts so far, such as cookies, wristbands, picture etc.
But we are excited about what the future will bring!
If you had one message for your fans, what would it be?
You`re not forgotten, you`re not alone! We are all One! One community! One family!
\\WeAreMyosotis//
If you could bring one rock star back from the dead, who would it be?
Only two names: Wayne Static / Paul Gray.
What do you enjoy the most about being a musician? And what do you hate?
We love expressing our thoughts, our feelings, our visions with our songs. Each new song is a possibility to create something that remains, that lasts. To establish something that is bigger than we are in person, an ideal people can relate to, which gives them shelter, which give them strength to bear the weight they have to carry every day, and to help them to get through their struggle against their inner fears and boundaries.
Name one of your all-time favourite albums?
Machine Head – “The Blackening”
It`s difficult for us to name one single album, since we all stick to other kinds of music and have been influenced by different artists but Machine Head`s – “The Blackening” is such a masterpiece, also it is a quite young album which was released in 2007. The length and the structure as well as the complexity of each song is a milestone and the significant song writing from Rob Flynn and Phil Demmel is just amazing.
What’s best? Vinyl, Cassettes, CD’s or Downloads?
Nothing beats a Vinyl!
Also the digital age helps lots of young artists to be heard and to distribute their music more easily than ever before, which is actually a great thing we also gain from, to sit down and to listen to a well-produced vinyl will always be the best way to celebrate music and to worship a production.
What’s the best gig that you have played to date?
We can count many good memories we have from different concerts and festivals we played already but one gig will always be something special for us!
We were honoured to support Meshuggah in 2018 in Karlsruhe, Germany. Meshuggah is a legendary band, founder of Djent and an archetype for us! It was already a dream come true.
If you weren’t a musician, what else would you be doing?
We would start a bar! Definitely we would start a bar with a small stage for live music.
The best drinks, chill flair and a stage for the best live music on the weekends!
Which five people would you invite to a dinner party?
Johnny Cash / Bill Murray / Robin Williams / Brian May / Pablo Escobar.
What’s next for the band?
We hope to be able to hit the road again soon. The Covid-19 Situation is challenging for the whole cultural scene in every country, but we use the time to work on new releases and to improve our live set-up. We just signed a deal with Blood Blast Distribution and hope that this will help us to reach more people with our message.
What Social Media/Website links do you use to get your music out to people?
Our mains are Instagram and Facebook, but we also use Twitter and have some stuff ready which we are about to release on YouTube.
Another quite new thing is our profile on Bandbond. This is an App especially for heavy music which is not using any filters or algorithms and it includes all our different social media profiles of any platform as well as the personal accounts of the members. It also contains a touring calendar and other functions will follow. It`s a good thing to stay up to date with us!
www.instagram.com/myosotis_official/
www.facebook.com/WeAreMyosotis/
www.myosotis-band.com/
Jaffa Cakes? Are they a cake or a biscuit?
That’s too deep sh@!
We don’t know what Platon would say but maybe a biscuit can be a soft cake, but a cake cannot be a biscuit.
Thank you for your time. Is there anything else that you would like to add?
Thank you very much for the nice questions! We hope to stay in contact!
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