BEYOND THE BLACK
TM - We are here with the fierce, the beautiful, the talented Jennifer from Beyond the Black. Jennifer, how the fuck are you?
JR - That's a hell of an introduction, I am great thank you so so much!
TM - We are excited for you to come to Australia, what can fans expect from your Australian shows?
JR - They can expect an amazing show with a lot of great energy that we are always putting into every single song, and that is what they can expect.
TM - I have to say I have been watching some of your live shows on YouTube and they look fantastic!
JR - Thank you so much, we love that video. I think it's winter coming.
TM - I think that's the one that I have loaded up right now, what can we expect from your setlist?
JR - Of course you can hear some of our new songs from our latest album, and some of the songs that are always loved by our fans.
TM - So all the classics that everyone wants to hear?
JR - Yeah
TM - You brought out your new self-titled album this year how have fans responded to it?
JR - The fun thing is we normally expect a lot of hater comments, but this time it was almost nothing so maybe it's good. I don't know, it felt strange, but I think it's the album with the most positive comments ever.
TM - I completely agree, having listened to it myself it was phenomenal, and speaking of the album what was your writing and recording process?
JR - This time Chris and I started to write songs together, so Chris (our guitarist) and I are writing the most and then we came to our producer and we finalise everything, and that is how we do it most of the time.
TM - So it was pretty much business as usual? Cranking amazing tunes straight off the top?
JR - It was a bit difficult, because of the covid situation, because we were writing in that process but since we are somehow the new generation, you could say that we are used to sending back and forth stuff. Of course, it was not that easy when we were recording, because we had to split more often. When we came to our producers, either Chris came alone, or I came alone but I think it wasn't bad to do it like that because of course I am very proud of the result so it was ok I think.
TM - How did you come up with the album cover?
JR - We had a concept for this album when we started, it started with getting to know our fans much better during covid because that was the focus, and we try to have the main thing that combines us with the fans to finalise and really find out what are the symbols, what are the themes that we are talking about, and these four things: love, lust, humility, and battle. These four things was the stuff that we wanted to talk about, these four symbols were the main concept of this album, and we were four people so it all came together then.
TM - If you could have any band play one of your songs, what song would it be? What band would it be would it be? In your style or their style?
JR - It would be interesting to have a band like Saxon, it would be totally different doing a song from us, maybe a song like Free Me or Reincarnation or Is There Anybody Out There would be great, and in their style not our style.
TM - That sounds incredible, you have me wanting to hear that now.
JR - I want to hear that now too.
TM - I have seen online that you guys have been doing the European circuit and a lot of festivals. what is your favourite so far?
JR - It is no secret that we are in love with Wacken Open Air, because we've been there since the beginning of Beyond The Black, and it is somehow our second home. It is always very special for us to be there and play there. This time somehow, as the headliner on the outer stage, it was incredible even though it was strange because of the situation there. It was a Wednesday, it was the first day and we didn't know if any people would be there in the end or if we could open up, but in the end, it turned out great, and even though they couldn't jump I tried to let them jump, but because of the mud and everything they couldn't, they lost their shoes but it was so fun and we love the whole show and the new stuff we brought with us like the wings. I don't know if you saw that I had big wings when we were playing Free Me and that was very special, I was very nervous because when we bring new stuff and do new stuff I'm very nervous.
TM - Well you couldn't tell, you were commanding and you had the presence on the stage, have you got a festival yet that you haven't played that you would like to play?
JR - yeah of course Hellfest.
TM - I love Hellfest.
JR - I was never there personally, but it would be amazing to play there.
TM - I could just see it now, you on 2025 Hellfest headliner
JR - Yeah let's do that.
TM - Tell me about Wacken, what it was like to start on these smaller stages and go to the bigger stages?
JR - As you might know or might not know, we started in 2014 with no album, so that was the first time we were ever on stage, so we played there in the tent in the Bullhead City. Nobody knew us because we didn't have music out there, we just played our music and hoped that the people would stay, and the fun thing was that more and more people came to us and wanted to see it and hear it, and the next year we played in 2015 the tent was fully packed, so no one could come in, and that was so great to see. We saw the progress, of course we had an album out then, and year after year we came to the louder stage and then the main stage, and now the headline slot at the louder stage. It was amazing to see that more and more people are interested in our music.
TM - Is this your first time coming to Australia as Beyond the Black?
JR - It is the first time we are coming to Australia in general. We have never been there personally as well, it is such a bucket list for all of us so everyone is coming earlier or staying longer because we want to see more of this beautiful country.
TM - Is there anything in particular that you want to see or any expectations you have when you are here?
JR - I think for me it's more about seeing the culture and seeing the nature and all of that which is so interesting, and the animals which sounds strange, this is what I want to see and I want to hug a koala.
TM - I don't want to disappoint you too much but if you want to hug a koala you have to go to a zoo to do it especially, because there aren't very many in suburban areas, they are mostly in the outback. We have so many amazing zoos here in Australia
JR - I'm sure I will see a lot of amazing stuff I haven't seen before, but in general, I am just really excited to see everything.
TM - Anything else you want to say to your Fans?
JR - I just want to say thank you to everyone who was listening to us, even if we weren't in your beautiful country before, and everyone who is now interested in the band, thank you so much for your interest, thank you for supporting us and we hope you like our shows there.
TM - Jennifer I want to say thank you so much for our interview today this is Jennifer Haben from Beyond The Black
LAGERFEST PRESS RELEASE - https://www.twinmusix.com/lagerfest
TICKET LINK - https://lagerfest.net/tickets/
