Dead Rhetoric: Considering the many roles you have within the music business as a musician and behind the scenes as a producer / manager, how have you handled the changing tides of the music industry from your beginnings to today?
Sinner: I was not always happy. I have my own view on particular things. I was always a hater of streaming music, in my case it is important that you own the music, that you can own the product, read the lyrics, artwork of the cover, pictures of the band. For me, it belongs to an album like the music. But to not have the whole surroundings with who is playing in the band, who is guesting, who is producing, who is engineering- it’s very interesting for me, and even the lyrics. When you just have a stream of the music, a lot of things get lost in the shuffle. That was for a long, long time I couldn’t accept this. But if times are changing, you can fight for yourself if you want to live for the stream or if you want to leave it. I love my job so much, I try to find my way in all these new communities, social media, Spotify- I will try to find a way for me whatever it is to try to enjoy music and working behind the scenes.
Dead Rhetoric: What are your overall thoughts about the state of heavy metal worldwide? Do you believe there is great diversity and approaches between the veteran artists and the newcomers?
Sinner: For me, it’s like a lifestyle. I’ve played around 30 countries during the last few years, and there is everywhere a metal community. You have the most diverse styles in heavy metal in (those) diverse metal genres. You have a lot of great open air festivals during the summertime, a great community. I am a part of it and I really appreciate it. Heavy metal has everything you need- if you want it black, if you want it hard, if you want it thrash, if you want it traditional, you can find everything.
Dead Rhetoric: What have been some of the countries that you are surprised have been interested in Primal Fear? As I would imagine going to Costa Rica was not something you ever imagined when you started this band…
Sinner: There are another hundred countries that I couldn’t imagine playing, and we really appreciate it. For us, it’s surprisingly coming to a country, playing a show, and it’s not a way that you have 5,000 people but we have our real diehard fans everywhere. And this is really great. Anywhere we go, it’s Chile, it’s Peru, it’s Columbia, it’s Mexico, it’s Canada- wherever we go we have great fans who are supporting us. This is also a part that keeps us going and gives us the power to keep going and create good music.
Dead Rhetoric: Given the amount of travel on planes you endure for the live shows worldwide, what tips can you offer to ensure safety and sanity considering the time zone difference, jet lag, customs procedures, and differences between airline companies?
Sinner: (laughs). Airline companies- do not choose the cheapest! You will lose. The traditional, well-known airline companies in our case during the last few years are still the most serious and we can rely on. The time differences, just to accept it and we can’t change it. I try to sleep on the longer trips and try to have some hours of rest, which is very important. Without sleep, you can’t give 100% or more to the fans, they buy the tickets and they deserve this. Try to sleep, and I always on an Atlantic flight I try to sleep. Losing luggage happens everywhere- if you have more flights and layovers going to one place, it happens that something gets lost. It happened this summer to us already – you can’t just wait and push to try to get it back in a regular case. You can only hope that on the next show your luggage is back again.
Dead Rhetoric: Can you think back to a time in your music career where you were able to learn from a specific failure, that maybe in the long-term helped you achieve a new level of respect and success down the road?
Sinner: Absolutely. In our earlier days, when we were wild, crazy, and stupid and did a lot of things wrong- it was important to learn. It’s always been a learning process- and I tell you for me, every production on a new album is still a learning process. Things happen that have never happened before- and it will be again and again, you think you’ve seen it all, know it all, and have it all- some new things come up where you say, ‘whoa’. So troubleshooting on one side and the learning process on the other side, that’s always a current status.
Dead Rhetoric: Do younger musicians ever look to you for advice and support- and if so what things do you have them think about and consider?
Sinner: The key to have a career is still discipline and good songs. Standing there in the early stages and thinking that you are the king goes wrong. Younger bands should work really hard in writing good songs, which is for me the most important key to have a career.
Dead Rhetoric: We all know your love for football (considered soccer in America) – did it seem surprising to you though to see Germany’s exit from the World Cup so soon this year? How did you feel about the action overall with France winning?
Sinner: In my view, already the games prior to the tournament were really shitty. And no one took it seriously. (Germany) was thinking, we are the world champions, so when is the semi-finals? That seemed more important to them than going through the first round, and this is wrong. This is the same as a band going on stage and saying, we will do this song with 50% of our power. If you think that, and this is your attitude, you will lose and wake up and go into the next plane and fly home. In the schedule before the tournament, we had some games and players chosen that were all wrong. Everything with the German national team did with this world tournament, the players they choose, the attitude, the tactics they chose, it was all wrong. So I was not surprised that this was a catastrophe.
For France, it was the exact opposite. The players they had, the attitude they had, they played a great tournament and they were going to win this tournament because they were good and not only lucky. France is a real champion and I have real respect for that.
Dead Rhetoric: How do you see the next twelve months shaping up for Mat Sinner in terms of activities with Primal Fear, Rock Meets Classic, Sinner, or other endeavors?
Sinner: First thing, in 2019 will be the preparation of the anniversary tour of Rock Meets Classic. There will be another fantastic tour, I’m very happy this tour is going that well and I can play with so many legends and great musicians in my life. I’m very thankful that this tour is running that well. The new year there will be that 10-year anniversary. After that we will sort out if Primal Fear will do another tour of North America, or South America. And we will start writing new songs in the autumn of 2018. For Sinner, it all depends on the situation with Primal Fear. We will have good news in mid-September, I may have some free time after touring Europe, Japan and Australia with Primal Fear – it will be a tough schedule in the second half of 2018. I will write songs for Sinner, there has to be a next album after Tequila Suicide, that was the most successful Sinner album in our long career. That was so much fun and such a good vibe in this band, we have to do another album.