Close-up: Frank Hermes
(written by Frank Hermes)
“No label that tells you that the reggae song “Gebrauchte Seele” doesn’t fit at all with the rock song “Schnee”, and what’s that with this New-German-Wave-Punk “Kalter Krieg”, next to the ballad à la Beatles “Millionen Meilen”?
A dream come true. “The” dream and number one on my bucket list! So I quit my job, started a label and locked myself in the basement to record all the songs that had been floating around in my head for so long.
I took some of my musical idols Dead Kennedys, The B52s and the German Band Ideal, threw them in the blender and out came “Kalter Krieg”. A breakup song of the angry kind that tells of the great war that follows the great love.
Who is in the mood for potato reggae spiced with consumer criticism? Then taste “Gebrauchte Seele”! Or are you more into poetry? Then listen to the alternative rock song “Schnee”, an adaptation of the poem “The Snow Storm” by Ralph Waldo Emerson.
The palette ranges from the Rage-Against-the-Machine-esque “Alter Sack” to the pensive, sad ballad “Millionen Meilen”, which tells of being alone in times of lockdown. Songs reminiscent of Foo Fighters (“Layla”) and Led Zeppelin (“Zug um Zug”), only in German. And you can tell that there’s a lot of autobiographical stuff in these songs.”
Find out more about Frank Hermes here:
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The ‘Close-up’ series contains insight provided by artists about their work.
