When it comes to serving up an organic blackened death metal style, there’s plenty to enjoy in the discography of German band The Spirit. You’ll hear elements of progressive rock sitting next to this aural extreme assault – combining influences from multiple decades. The latest album Songs Against Humanity possesses this authenticity you rarely hear from bands in the current scene – as guitarist, bassist, vocalist and main songwriter Matthias Trautes explains at length during our talk. You’ll learn more about the stylistic differences in the new album compared to their last record, his critical take on his own songwriting, concerns over social media and political corruption that have worsened humanity over the last ten to fifteen years, thoughts on AOP Records and the band Rush, plus honest views on the state of the extreme metal scene today in his eyes plus future plans.
Dead Rhetoric: What are some of your earliest memories surrounding music growing up in childhood? At what point did you start listening to heavier forms of music – and eventually gain the desire to pick up an instrument and start performing in your own bands?
Matthias Trautes: I can’t name you one moment – but it was the music that was in my house. The music that my parents were listening to. One of the memories I have is Pink Floyd, because my dad is a huge Pink Floyd fan, so there was always Pink Floyd running in the house. Especially on Sundays in the car, there was always Pink Floyd. With the heavy stuff, there was not one moment. Like many other people, I have an older brother, so whatever he was listening to, I was listening to. When he started enjoying punk, I ended up going in the punk direction. When he went into metal, I went into metal as well. It can be something good to have an older sibling – not always, but especially when it’s a brother it can be something good.
Picking the guitar up, on New Year’s Eve in 2000. We have a channel in Germany, and they have a show on New Year’s Eve called Pop Around the Clock and they play 24 hours of live shows. This was long before YouTube, and I wanted to record an AC/DC show. I thought they were cool music, so I recorded this on a VHS tape. And then before that there was Deep Purple – so they were showing a lot of hard rock shows. I recorded that as well. I watched AC/DC once, and the Deep Purple show around at least one hundred times. It looked like it was one of the last shows with Ritchie Blackmore, and it’s awesome. This show changed my life completely – I fell in love with the band. Especially with what he could do with the guitar, and I wanted to play guitar, this was something for me.
Dead Rhetoric: Did you take any formal lessons or basically just pick things up by ear?
Trautes: I had some lessons in the beginning. I know the basics. In this case, I was always the worst musician in the band when it comes to theory. Our drummer, he’s a drum teacher – Stanley Robertson, our live guitarist, he’s a guitar teacher. In the past we also had one of the best bassists in Europe, Linus Klausenitzer. They will talk about stuff, and I have no idea what they were talking about – I just grab the guitar and play. I’m not interested in the rest. It’s strange when you talk to someone like Linus – he couldn’t understand how I write the music. I hear the melody in my head – and I can’t understand how he is writing music not with feeling, it’s just like mathematics. That’s a very big difference in how you can write music.
Dead Rhetoric: Do you believe this helps The Spirit stand out as a group, because you don’t think as much from technique or theory but writing more from a feeling and emotional standpoint?
Trautes: It doesn’t matter if you know theory or not, but emotions are important. I don’t know if we stick out but what I try to do with the music is not to use a single weak riff. Especially when you have time pressure and the studio time is coming close, if you are not done with the songwriting, don’t just take this riff because of the time pressure. You spend hours every day on things, and sometimes you can’t get forward for inspiration. Don’t take just anything because you want to continue. Just wait until good stuff comes, and then continue. It can be quite hard. That’s the main point I think why we have strong songs. Especially in the case of the guitar work.
Dead Rhetoric: Is it harder to be self-critical of your own creativity – to say this is not good enough to try harder again?
Trautes: That’s just a learning process. When you’ve recorded a bunch of albums, you know how it works. You are getting better to not lean into the temptation. Now, this makes a difference between a good record and a great record. These times when you say no, just continue and wait until something better comes. I don’t save riffs on my phone or the computer – I just work on the song that I’m working on right now. You can get lazy by taking other riffs and I don’t think that’s good for the songwriting process.
Dead Rhetoric: Songs Against Humanity is the fourth studio album for The Spirit. How did you see this set of material developing as far as the songwriting and recording sessions went? And where does this record sit in the discography of the group in terms of differences or similarities to previous output?
Trautes: With the previous album, Of Clarity and Galactic Structures, we went into more (of a) experimental rock direction. With this record, I didn’t want to do this anymore. There are still elements of this style in there, but it’s not the main focus. Here I wanted to write good riffs, good songs, catchy ones, more straightforward and in your face. It is a bit easier and more accessible than the previous one. I love prog music when I’m listening to it the hundredth time like a Tool record, I still hear something new. That’s what I wanted to do with the last record.
Dead Rhetoric: Were there any songs on this record that were harder to develop from the demo stage to what we hear on the final recordings?
Trautes: No, not really. What I usually don’t do is when I am done with a song, I don’t change anything anymore. Because if you continuously change stuff, usually you make it worse. I know a lot of people that do this, the song is actually done, and they change stuff here and there. “Death Is My Salvation” was the first song I wrote for this album, the longest track on the album and I was never 100% happy with it. One year later, when most of the other album was done, I started working on it again. I had a bit more distance to it – and I had to see what annoys me, what wasn’t 100% complete to me. I changed a few things – I sent things to Manuel, and we met together in the rehearsal room the next day, and he thought the song was okay. I said now the song is really good. It was exactly what we needed to change. This time it benefitted the song, and I am happy it ended this way.
Dead Rhetoric: The cover art from Eliran Kantor is another striking piece – your second time working with this famed artist. What’s the process like from inception to the final cover we see – and what do you enjoy most about his skills that benefit The Spirit in expressing the visual aspects of your music?
Trautes: He has a very specific style that he is doing. You can immediately tell if it’s cover work that’s done by him, no one looks like the style that he has. He is working with a lot of bands, but there are many artworks from different bands that always look the same. I want to stand out a little bit. He is a great artist and it’s easy to work with him. I give him nothing specific, but I tell him what I don’t want – some vague ideas, and he is doing his magic. There is not so much (input) from my side. I give him some input that I wanted things a bit brighter this time – the last (album) was quite dark, which fit with the overall lyrical theme of the album. The music this time is more in your face, so I wanted the cover art to reflect that. I wanted brighter colors, and when you see the album artwork you say yes, he did that.
Dead Rhetoric: What do you enjoy most regarding the extreme metal style that you express through this band? Are there specific aspects on the lyrical and musical front that are essential components to make The Spirit special and different?
Trautes: I don’t think anything in our music or the lyrics in general makes us special or different. Nowadays there are way too many bands – especially when you look at the over 55 years of the genre since the first Black Sabbath record. There is too much stuff out there. Lyrics – we like to talk about two topics. The universe and what is going on out there, I’m interested in astronomy and all this kind of stuff. The other topic is the human scum here on planet Earth. It’s like the two topics that you never run out of input. We all know there are two things are infinite – the universe and human stupidity. Those two will deliver forever enough lyrics for me to write stuff for The Spirit.
Dead Rhetoric: How would you assess The Spirit in terms of live performances that may differ from what people hear on your records? What have been some of the standout or more memorable moments to date when it comes to your live shows over the years?
Trautes: When it’s a good live show, when we have a proper sound, and a good audience, there’s always another layer on top of it compared to the studio albums. There are these emotions, sending energy back and forth to the audience, that’s quite important for us. It gives another layer to the music. We try to be as close to the studio sound as possible, of course there are a lot of things that can happen in a small venue with a shitty PA. I’m really happy that people tell us that we sound live like we do on the record, and that we get as close to the sound as the records.
Memorable shows – the first things that come to my mind are not good memories, you know? We just played four album release shows – we played in Stuttgart, the first show in a very small venue, but it was sold out weeks before. The sound on stage was not good at all, but the audience was wild, there was such a great energy there. When the people go nuts, you get more into a punk rock mode to give people a good time and give the people what they want. There are good shows, there are shows you go through. A lot of things can happen. We just announced the Bloodstock Festival in the UK, that will be our biggest show we’ve ever played next year, I’m really looking forward to that.
Dead Rhetoric: You mentioned in a recent interview I saw online the fact that in your opinion many changes have occurred in the Western world over the past ten to fifteen years that have created a lot of turmoil and strife across humanity. What do you think are some of the significant factors that have taken place that cause you to worry about the state of the world we are currently dealing with?
Trautes: There are way, way too many reasons for this. The first two that come to mind – social media, which makes the people dumber and dumber, and puts them against each other in a way that is quite terrifying. And another thing is especially in the Western World, politicians are corrupt as fuck nowadays. When they point the fingers at countries like Russia, China, we are on the same way here. We are on the same path that other countries have been ten years ago. When I look here in Germany, there are criminals in our government. And nothing happens. They do stuff that makes them criminals, but the thing is nobody has to fear any consequences. Everyone is doing what they want. If I worked in a company and did a bad job, then I get fired. And when I get out and do a crime, I should be punished. And the same rules should be there for politicians as well.
In general, for people on the streets, people get stabbed out there and people get free the same night. Law and order are completely out of control here. These are the first things that come to my mind. Politicians would know their consequences if they did their job right. We would have completely different governments. It doesn’t matter which party – left right, up down, black or white – they are all together. If nobody gets punished, then they can all benefit from things. I see this more and more every day. Then after a ten-year break you look back and you see how it was back then – people think it could be worse. I can think about the time when things were different, and people go – damn, what’s happened here? At a larger scale – everything is different. Everyone realizes the big changes that have occurred. I see quite a bleak future.
Dead Rhetoric: How do you feel about AOP Records as a label and how they work with The Spirit in terms of their efforts to expand the following of the band?
Trautes: When we left Nuclear Blast, we had quite a few options – even some well-known labels. I prefer to be a big band on a small label then a small band on a big label. When you are a small band on a big label, you are just a number, you know. Of course it has benefits – you can reach more people. With a small label, it’s more personal. The owner of AOP Records became a very close personal friend of mine. Especially now with this release we talk almost every day on the phone. I don’t know if we would have become much bigger if we had stayed with a bigger label. There are benefits on big labels but also in some parts they are not that good. What is important for you, and what is better for the band? I didn’t regret it for a single day that we signed with AOP Records. We made a new contract with them; the old contract was done, and I signed a new (one) because why change a winning system.
The music industry, most people are lazy, wrong. To find people you can trust and rely on, that’s the most important thing. When you have people like this, hold tight to them, because you can’t do it alone.
Dead Rhetoric: I know that you love the band, Rush. What do you enjoy most about their sound, have you ever gotten the chance to take in a show live during their career, and what would you say are one or two essential albums that motivate you most from their discography?
Trautes: I can’t tell what it is in Rush. There is so much – if you compare the first three records and then look at the change they did with 2112. Up to Moving Pictures, then the 80s albums they went completely nuts into the synth sounds and electric drum kits. The quality of the music in general – it’s outstanding. I saw them twice – in Frankfurt on their last European tour. And in 2011, the Time Machine tour, when they played the whole Moving Pictures album and then some other cuts afterwards. It was my top three concerts of all time. The sound – when these three musicians without backing tracks can create a wall of sound, it’s incredible. They played for over three hours. One of the greatest bands that has every existed. They were an awesome live band.
When Neil passed away, I was very sad. It’s always sad when musicians die from bands you love. In this case, that was a tough one.
Dead Rhetoric: How do you see the state of extreme metal music in today’s global scene? What aspects excite you, and what changes (if any) would you like to make for the greater good of all parties involved?
Trautes: That’s a tough question for me. I’m not into the extreme metal scene nowadays. I may be a bit bored. That’s why I started The Spirit. I wasn’t happy with the albums coming out. There are still good records coming out, but I miss the number of high-quality albums that are coming out. In the 90s what came out in black and death metal, it was crazy. Just name one year, and I can tell you twenty great albums that came out. Nowadays, everything sounds the same, a copy of a copy. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel. We don’t do that either. There are not many bands that come to my mind that have something completely new. Children of Bodom did something – their first album was something that no one else had heard before. It becomes more difficult to come up with something new. Just make something good, a good record – it can be a straight forward heavy metal record in the vein of Iron Maiden, or a death metal record in the vein of Bolt Thrower. It just needs good songs, an honest sound, and feeling.
That’s what I’m missing, completely. There are albums coming out, maybe I’m just a grumpy older dude. I hope this will change; I would like it to be different, but I know this will not change anymore. Not with the amount of stuff that is coming out every day.
Dead Rhetoric: What’s on the horizon for anything related to The Spirit (or other musical activities) over the next year or so to support the new album?
Trautes: The same as always. Play as many live shows as we can. We have more announcements coming forward, more tours and festivals to come. We are not a social media band, we don’t have a circus on stage, it’s just about the music for us. We gain new fans when we play live, and that’s the most important thing for us. We want to play live as much as possible and bring the music to the people.