Sinbreed are now a well-known name for the metal fans in Europe. For almost a decade together, the band succeeded in building their own unique sound. Alex Schulz (bass), Frederik Ehmke (drums), Flo Laurin (guitars) и Herbie Langhans (vocals) are taking the best of the rich music heritage of the German power metal genre, adding some speed and energy to it and transform their songs into a pleasant adventure. This is proved once again by their new album named Master Creator, which by the way hits the stores in Europe today. So – join us here with the engine of the band –  Mr. Flo Laurin, who is revealing for us why it`s also the band`s most important record up to date.

 

Sinbreed

 

Hello, Flo. Nice to hear from you again..

Hey, Ivan! I do remember that we spoke about „Shadows“ two years ago and now we`ll talk about the new record again I assume..

That`s right. Let`s start with something not that pleasant…Marcus Siepen left the band . It`s understandable, as Blind Guardian are active again. But tell me, is the door still open for him to come in the future?

The thing is that we…there was no fighting going on, or stuff like that, it was just a professional decision. Marcus had a certain feeling when we were talking for the follow-up to the „Shadows“ record, that he wouldn`t be able to make it so he let us know in advance. And that was fair because we could reschedule everything and check if we could make it without Marcus. This is how friendship works. Yes – maybe for live gigs or for a future collaboration the door is open for him, absolutely. But for now, for this record and for the next couple of shows he won`t be able to play. But we will see what the future will bring.

Does that mean that you will stay a four-piece?

No. For the live gigs I have a certain feeling that we need a second guitarist. All the songs we composed really need two guitars so when we play those live we will have a second guitarist. There is nothing confirmed yet but we are looking for someone to fill the gap.

So who did what for Master Creator?

Well, Marcus did not take part in the making of Master Creator. I played all the guitars, all songs were written by me…actually by the four band members. Everyone contributed with at least one song.

And what is the situation with Frederik Ehmke, who is also holding the sticks in Blind Guardian now, and it`s a similar situation as with Marcus. I hope he is not going off, either…

No. You need to know that Frederik and I live in the same city, so this was a big advantage when writing songs and recording everything since the distance between us is so small. It was easy because even when he got to brake off on a tour, he was getting back home and while doing stuff at home we were able to work on the Sinbreed record..

Nice. Okay, let`s speak now about the great new album of yours…for third consecutive time this is the best Sinbreed record. It is catchier, faster, sharper and more energetic. Is this how you would describe the ten new songs, too?

Yes, I can totally agree on that. Because in Sinbreed we always have this…a little bit different approach – sharp songs, long about four minutes and everything perfect sounding, well-mixed and super performed. This was what we try in Sinbreed. But the third record is a very important one. And even if there were so difficult circumstances, you know, with the leaving of Marcus, with Frederik on tour, with Herbie joining Avantasia in the finishing process of the album… Ah, it was a total mess. I was very frustrated, not only as the mastermind and the guitar player but also as the producer. It was really difficult. But at once we thought like…“Fire it all, now we`ll do it the real way!“. Everyone gave everything for the record and I`m glad it turned out so well.

This was my next question, actually. I know you`re also a good producer and I couldn`t find any information about the production of that record. Did you produce it all by yourself?

Yes. Unfortunately this was not written in the label sheet, but like the other two CDs, I did also the whole producing. And along with the engineer Markus Teske I did the mixing either, in Bazement Studio. This is part of the full package – I`m also the manager, the lead guitarist, rhythm guitarist, songwriter – this is really a lot of work. But every company has a boss and every band has a leader, so I think this is very diplomatic. Everyone is welcome to put in his import, no worries, but in the end of the day someone has to take responsibility and here this is me.

It must be hard for you to combine all those duties…

Aw, it`s a catastrophe, haha. I also have a day job where I work 50 hours per week, in my regular job…and then you come back and you have like…another full-time job with Sinbreed. So I cannot do this any longer, something has to change. I have to step back from my day job or from Sinbred. You know, I`m turning 33, sometimes there will be a certain time that you have to decide which way to go because when you are young, you can handle it, but when you start a family and get older you need a little bit more free time, so…this is really concerning me right now. But I will try to absolutely prevent myself from messing um Sinbreed. It all depends on how this record will get received and if it will sell well then we can think a little bit more relaxed. It`s a business…

Some of the lyrics I think are very personal. They are like trying to directly challenge the fans, to provoke them and make them believe in themselves. Is that the whole concept of the album and its message to the fans?

Yes. Very cool that you understood it the right way, okay? Because especially the Master Creator song, lots of our partners and friends ask me what it means…Isn`t it a machine on the cover or something?! But to our understanding the Master Creator is everyone of us. You, me, everyone. We are all in the position to create our own lives – what job do we want to do, will we harm other people, or will we care for them…so this is it – you are the creator of your own life. This is what we bring on with that album. This is something that has to make people think about their lives and somehow help them make the right decisions.

The second record of yours was made with no keyboards, but now they are back in. Which one do you prefer more – Sinbreed with two guitarists or with one guitarist and keyboard parts?

Definitely two guitarists. In the best case we`ll have two live guitarists, and for the studio I can take that duties and play the both parts and the harmonies, of the both guitars. Now here and there we had keyboards because we had in mind that we needed them. For the „Shadows“ album we knew we will play live as five-piece and we got rid of the keyboards back then. This also counts for this record now – we found it appropriate that way. It was just right. But in general – I prefer less keyboards. I`m totally cool with the „At the Gate“ and „The Riddle“ keyboard parts, but they must not become a big thing for the songwriting in Sinbreed.

Yeah, you play power-speed metal, and speed metal is better without keyboards, haha…

Yeah, I couldn`t agree more. Tell that to all the Italian guys!

I know you are not much into making ballads, but again „At the gates“ works out pretty well. Do you feel more comfortable playing ballads now and how did you come up with including the piano?

You are right. I don`t like ballads. I`ll tell you that I promised myself that until I turn 40, I won`t put out a ballad on my own. Haha…This was my personal goal. I`m totally happy that I have nothing to do with it, besides producing it. The song was written by Frederik who also did the piano in the demo version. We had Markus Teske to play the piano in the studio again, because he`s a keyboarder, he`s a piano player on his own and he sounds much better. And it`s not a typical power metal ballad, we have this kind of unique verse, where is not so much happening. We got Herbie giving all into it so it doesn`t get boring. We had this different approach and we said „Okay, this is not a standard song, which people would hear twenty times“. This is just another aspect of Sinbreed and we are confident to put it in the record. And as the critics came in, I think we succeeded and it`s not a filler song for the record but just another cool song.

To be fair when I first heard it I thought there is a guest vocal in it but then I got that it`s Herbie`s low registers..

He`s awesome, right? The way he can go up, he can get low. It adds just another color to the album.

Speaking of guests, I couldn`t find any in Master Creator?

Aww, you know.. you are right! No! This is the first time for us. No other guitarists etc. But a thing that might interest you is that the solo I did work with Stephan Lill from Vanden Plas. There was a collaboration that he wrote and composed some of the guitar solos and I arranged them into my style and recorded them. This is one more of a difference between this record and the others. It made things a lot easier for me.

I can`t miss the pipes and the folk elements in the true end of the last song – „On The Run“ either. They are like…saying „You never know what to expect from the next Sinbreed album“…

Yes. Pipes as you know are not typical for our genre. The cool thing here is that those are not samples. They are real recorded bagpipes, made by Frederik. He has a few bagpipes of his own and he knows how to play them pretty well. Herbie came up with the song because it had some kind of viking vibe, a ‘Brave Heart’ vibe into the lyrics and into the song. He was very into it because whenever he has the chance to play bagpipes, believe me he`s going to do it. He managed the bagpipe arrangement and then we put it in the record as something much more different, which people would not expect. It turned out to be pretty cool.

It sure did. I tried to reach your website, but all the time I was being redirected to your facebook page. Why so?

Hmm, a good question. Buuut…if you check it on monday – we will be back online with a completely new website. And we are really proud of it because for us it was a big problem. We hadn`t an up-to-date website for a long time and now on Monday we`re finally able to put something up.

What do you think about the new Avantasia album?

I definitely liked it. Herbie has such an unique voice and he can use it in many different ways. When it counts for „At The Gate“, it absolutely counts for „Draconian Love“ either. Of course taking part in Avantasia gives us in Sibreed a hard time, relating to all the dates and stuff… but in the end Herbie is our friend and we`re all happy for him. He totally deserves it to play in such a big band as Avantasia. Tomorrow he`s also performing at the Eurovision contest with them so yeah, many things around him are going on and there is no doubt that is good even for Sinbreed.

It is really nice how generous you react on all the others` guys off-Sinbreed duties, mate!

You know we started in 2008 with everyone saying that this is a side project of Frederik from Blind Guardian and Herbie… I can understand it, but what people must not forget is that the four people now in the band are here since the beginning. That is almost ten years and now we have three records. It is very important to me that everyone know Sinbreed is a band, not a project. Noone gets kicked ot banned.

And at the end, what are the future touring plans of Sinbreed?

For now only three dates are arranged in April in Germany. And there will be a replacement for Herbie, which is somehow unfortunate but like I mentioned we do not expect him to break off from Avantasia as this is a big chance for him. Our shows were booked an year ago, when nobody was expecting this situations. So we spoke with the promoters and they accepted it. We do have a name already but I`m still not allowed to say it. It will be exciting for us because Sinbreed is a band and for those live gigs we`re having two new guys. After them the summer festival season is on and we will try to cope it as a four-piece because those songs really deserve to be played live.

Okay, thanks for your time, Flo. I hope we can meet Sinbreed live here in Southeastern Europe soon enough. See you around.

Ivan „iDTemplar“ Stoyanov