Jumping into the modern metal fray back in 2022 with their self-titled debut, League of Distortion hit upon a sound that was firmly metallic but willing to branch out into other directions as needed/wanted. The upcoming Galvanize is their sophomore effort and ups the game in every direction for the up and coming band. We reached out to chat with vocalist Anna “Ace” Brunner to discuss the fine-tuning and approach to this new album, lyric writing for both herself and other bands, the challenges of new bands (and social media), as well as some other topics about this engaging new act.
Dead Rhetoric: After a successful debut in 2022, how did you approach Galvanize?
Anna “Ace” Brunner: I would say the main difference is that it feels like we have been on tour for the past two years. For the first record, we sat down during COVID and we really had time to focus on songwriting. This time, I had ideas, but I wondered when I would have time to sit at home and lay out my ideas and logic? My phone was full of ideas, but to really find the time to sit down was a bit tough this time. But you make it work, you find it, and you get so much inspiration on the road. It feels different to write when you know exactly how it’s going to feel in front of a crowd, or at least you think you do, because you are right in front of the crowd the whole time.
Dead Rhetoric: What did you feel came into the band as you toured more? What did you pull in from those live shows into Galvanize?
Brunner: I love the catchiness of our choruses. I love that people who don’t know us yet can listen to a song and sing along. This is what unites people at a concert – when you are singing/screaming/yelling, that’s what we do with our music. So that was definitely something we wanted for this second record. I also get influences from what’s going on in the world, what my friends tell me about problems or things that influence them. For me, it was clear each time this happened that I wanted to try to write a song about something, to give more to the people out there who might be in a similar situation.
Dead Rhetoric: So when you are looking at lyrics then, are you more drawn to certain things than others? In terms of if you hear something, you realize that’s something you could work with versus hearing something and not knowing how to approach it?
Brunner: Yes, it’s more the feeling of ‘I want to write a song about this topic’ or I have a line in mind. Then I try to write about it [laughs].
Dead Rhetoric: How does writing work between yourself and Jim [Muller]?
Brunner: We had a couple of songwriting sessions, and I talked to the boys also [Felix “Ax” Rehmann and Tino “Aeon” Calmbach] in the bus or in the car going to a festival. Sometimes we talk about what is happening and I love to get influence from them about topics to write about. For this record, we had a bunch of songwriting sessions, also with our producers, and that’s how the songs started. Sometimes I had ideas for myself, or Jim and I were working on something. But there were many, many songs or ideas going on and we decided to work on some of them.
Dead Rhetoric: Do you feel that League of Distortion gives you the freedom to avoid ‘playing in a genre box? The music seems pretty open. I can’t sit down and say, “it’s this or it’s that.”
Brunner: Absolutely. This is what we wish for League of Distortion. We took our freedom because we had nothing to lose. There was nothing out there. Of course, we did have our fans in mind, and sometimes I was thinking if something was going to be too crazy. But I think this is what we stand for. I think our fans understand that. “Maybe this is too much outside of the genre, but I still like it,” or “I don’t like it, but I like the other song.” Having the freedom of having no musical boundaries, mixing those sounds and styles together that we love, that is absolute freedom and it’s one of the things I love most about League of Distortion.
Dead Rhetoric: That said, do you feel there are certain aspects that you strive for with a League of Distortion song? Are there certain feelings or sounds that you would associate with the band?
Brunner: I think it’s the freedom with different styles. The heaviness and the empowerment statement we have with our songs. I always want the empowerment – I don’t want to be like, ‘the world is shitty and I can’t do anything about it,’ because yes, the world is shitty but we will stay strong. We are together in this. Together we can find a way or find a way out of this situation at some point. But also, I’m almost giving the people who listen to our music the feeling that they are not alone. There is someone else thinking about this. There is someone else who wishes for something better than this. We can take action. We can make things happen.
Dead Rhetoric: The band nicknames. I wanted to ask about them – what was your intention for having each member having a nickname in the band?
Brunner: For me, I can feel my artist persona more, “Ace,” within the name. It might be a little bit weird, but when I do songwriting for other bands as Anna Brunner, I feel a bit more in that I please the situation. I understand the band and what they want to write about. “Ace” for me is this strong persona who knows what she wants, and is who I want to be. It helps me, with this new nickname, that I’m going to go on stage as “Ace” and it feels a bit more relaxed as opposed to being Anna Brunner, who has been around the world for all these years and has her experience. “Ace” has only existed for four years.
To be honest, it does help to think different, for me in Exit Eden for example than for League of Distortion. For Jim, being in Kissin’ Dynamite as well. I call him “Aro” when it’s about League of Distortion. I write to him saying what is going on and then it’s always clear what is going on. It helps to separate the bands too!
Dead Rhetoric: I was actually going to ask something similar to you – how do you compare writing for League versus Exit Eden?
Brunner: I always want to give a positive message when I write. It’s just who I am. When I write for other bands, I don’t think I could ever write just as destructive, negative lyric for them. I don’t think I would feel it. For League of Distortion, we have the freedom to be a bit more extreme. Not to say, ‘okay is there too much of this or that,’ it’s warranted that we are maybe a little straightforward or a bit over the top. So people think about things for themselves and maybe wonder, “did they really mean it that way?” That’s what we want from League of Distortion.
For Exit Eden, it has to fit the symphonic metal music, and style, and universe. But I love that too. There are certain words I would never use for Exit Eden, and certain words I would never use for League of Distortion. So it’s cool too.
Dead Rhetoric: In terms of writing for other people as a whole, do you find that to be more challenging or is it easier to write something for someone else?
Brunner: I just love writing lyrics so much. For me, I have so many ideas each time. When I know the artist, it’s even better because I can feel what I think he or she wants to say. At this point, I would say it’s still a little easier for League of Distortion it’s a bit easier to write because there’s no one saying I can’t do something. When I write it, I know I can do it. Sometimes, some artists say something is too extreme. They say, “can we find different words because I don’t want to use extreme words like that?” For League of Distortion, I can do whatever feels right. But I think this will change in the future. Once you do another record and another record with your own band, I hope it’s not going to happen but I think it will get more challenging through the years.
Dead Rhetoric: With the lyrical aspect in mind, what’s a song or two from the new album that you are super proud of, lyrically, with how they came out?
Brunner: That’s hard to choose [laughs]! I really love to play with words. Sometimes it takes so long to finish lyrics because they are not quite what I want. Then of course if we have a deadline, it gets more challenging because I have the time in my head. I remember changing “Galvanize” shortly before going into the studio. I’ve very glad with how it turned out now because it was a little bit..I wanted to have some gaming words snuck in there. I also wanted it to be emotional and for people to understand, even if maybe they weren’t galvanized. It’s a very dry word and for German people, they don’t even know it, some people, so they don’t have an emotion. So I’m glad how that worked out.
For “In our DNA,” I did research on the nature vs nurture question. I watched a bunch of youtube videos about the topic. About psychopaths and how they got this way. There’s all this footage out there. It was a song that I spent a long time trying to understand how a person who is maybe bad from birth, how they would react or talk about things or what their childhood would be like. That was something also challenging and trying to find the right words for that.
Dead Rhetoric: Earlier you mentioned about wanting to have that positive piece to it. In terms of the way the band sounds and how you sing, do you think that’s a part of the time in how you formed the band during COVID or is it more just being positive in general?
Brunner: Definitely, but also having the time during COVID led me to really think about what was going on in myself. And also talking to friends who were really having time to talk with them for hours since I didn’t have anything to do or go. It opened up the opportunity to think about topics that I had set away, or talk to friends about things that I thought many people could relate to and I wanted to give something. If I can help a friend about something by talking to them, that’s great, but if I can write a cool song about it, I can help even more people and that’s even better for me.
Dead Rhetoric: So have you gotten those types of responses from people in the live setting or through social media that the songs did help them?
Brunner: Yes, and I love it so much. Even with songs that we didn’t play, there were people who came after a show and said thank you for writing a specific song, because it did help them so much. It also shows me that the music, over whatever way people are listening to the music, that I can reach people or help people even if they don’t make it to a concert.
Dead Rhetoric: You are two albums in, what do you feel are the goals for League of Distortion at this point? What’s the impact you are looking to make?
Brunner: On the one hand, I’m just grateful to play my music and I want to have more gigs for the band so we can be out there even more. I also wish to be big enough to be able to give away even more work. To focus on the creative process, because that is the challenge in the beginning. You have to do a lot of things yourself because you don’t have the money to pay people to work for you. So that’s something I am really looking forward to and hoping that future will come. Where I have my people and crew that can assist me. A family we can put together and trust. We are working on it, but there is more we can build in the band and crew together. That’s on the personal side.
Of course, I wish we could tour more and tour the US. I want to get out to more of Europe than just Germany. I wish that more people would get to know us and listen to us. Maybe even reach some pop listeners who are not actually into metal, but get the connection through some of our songs like, “ok, this is heavy but I like it.” That would be a personal goal I would love to achieve.
Dead Rhetoric: There is this breadth of material in the music, which I love that stuff, where it has more universal appeal. It’s not just stuck to the metal genre and gatekept by it. It’s important nowadays to have a sound you are shooting for, but it’s still hitting those marks that you can pull people in that you might not otherwise.
Brunner: Exactly, because I do really love our metal community. I have the feeling that people like to dress the way they like and they have a connection. Maybe they are a bit different but they seem welcome and I think it’s a great place to be. I wish more people had the chance to be a part of this community.
Dead Rhetoric: With the touring aspect, and not having an ‘in the genre box’ type of sound, who do you feel would be great touring partners for you?
Brunner: I have a dream, but it’s probably too high to reach in the next ten years [laughs]. I personally would love to tour with Papa Roach. It’s maybe a personal thing, but it’s a different style, but I think it would fit in a way. I think it would be something I would really love. I was also asked in a different interview about Amaranthe. I would also think that would be a cool match. It’s a little more on the musical wave. But there’s a few cool bands that might work out that I would love to tour with in the next few years.
Dead Rhetoric: In terms of reach, what are the challenges in starting out as a new band and trying to get anyone to listen to you nowadays?
Brunner: For me, to be personally honest, the biggest challenge is social media. It is great, if you use it right, and it can be a great platform. But I’m really bad at it. It does not come natural to post things. It’s on my to-do list. I like to reach people and when I see the reactions I am happy about it, but it doesn’t come naturally. There’s many bands that are way better at social media and sharing what they are doing/going. I’m super old school. I’m a person who had a great evening with a friend and didn’t even think about taking one picture. With the band, we are all a little bit like that. We need someone to make content from things, so we can share since it’s super important.
This is definitely, honestly, our hardest part. We love to create music. We have great producers, and a great management and platform and people who book for us. They all do a great job, but that’s a thing that we can’t source out yet and we have to do it ourselves. That’s my greatest challenge.
Dead Rhetoric: That’s something a lot of bands have been saying lately. The challenge of being a musician but also a content creator. A lot of people don’t want to do that, and I know I wouldn’t want to either.
Brunner: Especially when I look totally shitty and write a song. The last thing I think of is to take a photo or make a video and say that I am writing in my room. I’m in a creative bubble. I don’t even open Instagram or respond to WhatsApp messages that are really important. I want to be in that tunnel. I understand that fans want to see what’s going on. It’s kind of a paradox, which I understand. It’s just super hard.
Dead Rhetoric: What are your plans for the rest of this year?
Brunner: We have our very first headline tour planned! It’s super exciting. There are 8 dates, only in Germany, but it’s going to be our first time when we get to decide everything. We get our long set and choose our support bands. We want to have a very cool evening for our fans. We hope that people even come to more than one concert, because it’s also the community feeling. I see the same people at concerts. I ask if they know each other, and they say they met here and I think that’s so special. It’s special about our music and the metal community. I’m looking forward to that like a little child! That is the most important thing going on.
Then next year, it’s open! We will see what happens. We have a few cool festivals planned and just hope to be able to be on the road more and reach more people while doing what we love.
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