Christopher: No, Oliver always played the guitar and in the beginning he searched for a new vocalist so he asked me if I want to do the job! Since the first CD my brother has written the songs and I wrote the lyrics and the vocal-melodies– we have no idea how it works if if we change our jobs-could be funny hahaha!

What does Lacrimas Profundere mean?

It's Latin and means "to shed tears". We always searched for a name which nobody used before and "bitch", "slut" and "motherfucker" were not the names we were looking at, so we choose LACRIMAS PROFUNDERE and since 1993 we're LACRIMAS PROFUNDERE the rock´n´sad crew!

You describe Lacrimas Profundere's sound as "Rock 'N Sad Music". Would you say that describes your music in particular or is it a generalization of the artists in this genre such as H.I.M , Poisonblack, The Cult, Type o Negative, etc.?

There is a table dance bar at the end of the street. The owner of this bar is Billy Idol! He has a new barkeeper his name is Ville Vallo and his special cocktail called "filthy notes" he puts one bottle of Sisters of Mercy, a piece of sentenced, a glass of 69 Eyes and a glass of Type o Negative in it! And Billy Duffy of The Cult pays the bill. This cocktail gives you a terrible hangover. On the next day you wake up and you're rock´n´sad!

Speaking of those aforementioned bands, who in the world of gothic rock does the band idolize the most and are there any artists in particular that you garner inspiration from?

For me The Doors with Jim Morrison, The Cult and Sisters of Mercy! One of the coolest people in Music Biz is definitely Mike Patton, he's a brilliant singer and makes a lot of strange and nearly stupid things…. I like it.

Also, what would you say is the difference between a band like Lacrimas Profundere and say H.I.M.?

Puh what can I say; I can't find any song in our back catalog that sounds like "Join Me"! We use a deep voice and HIM use a deep voice - that's it! In my opinion we're heavier and our songs are more rock orientated.

I must say that your latest release FILTHY NOTES FOR FROZEN HEARTS is hands down one of the best goth rock albums I've heard in the past year (but interestingly enough there are two GREAT ones this year-yours and Poisonblack's). What influenced these songs and how was the recording process?

Thanx a lot! The main influence is this adventure to play in a band and go on tour and see so many other countries and cities! We can say proudly that we know every toilet at the highway here in Germany, we went on stages with cables and wires like a bomb and took a shower in rooms where nobody else would do that, we had on tour sometimes nothing to eat for 2 days and brushed our teeth with beer – so we simply talk of our life on tour – Sometimes you need melodies to describe something, sometimes only heavy riffs and sometimes clean slow parts-put this all together and the result is a LACRIMAS record!

Is there some sort of significant meaning behind the title FILTHY NOTES FOR FROZEN HEARTS?

We like clichés and "frozen hearts" is goth clichés at it's best! But we like it in the combination with dirty fucking things and "filthy notes" is the best statement for what we wanted to do! On the other hand we like that there are a lot of "f" in the title! We like the "f" words.

What kind of feedback has the band been receiving about the new album?

We get more Jägermeister and beer for free, better hotel rooms and more people know our faces. We entered the german album charts on place 82 and we get more fan mails. Ah, and the price at Ebay for CDs with autograph is better than ever hahaha!

How would you compare your new release to Ave. End in regards to music, meaning and emotion?

AVE END was the milestone in our history and "filthy notes" is the next step. John Fryer was the producer of the whole album. It was great for us to record a CD with the man behind such great works like HIM, DEPECHE MODE, ROB ZOMBIE and CRADLE OF FILTH. He came from England to listen the to new material at our rehearsal room, sat down at our fuckin bench and said "OK-please blow me away". We played some titles of the record and after 3 Cans of coffee - only for him - he said "lets do it" and "you have 21 days for the whole production". He came to Munich to record the album. This guy is strange-he don't now anything about sleeping, drinking Jägermeister or free time! We had to work at morning till midnight or longer every day and he never heard something about the word "Sunday"! But nevertheless we have to say: thanx John-we learned a lot! We simply wanted the best!

I know it's not specifically bound to goth rock, but it seems the keyboard plays a huge roll in the overall atmosphere of the music. How important do you believe it is to have a strong keyboard player and what do you think it achieves in the band's sound?

It's important to have a strong musician at every instrument! Keyboards are important but our music need this rock groove so in my opinion the drums are very important if you want to play goth ROCK!

You're gearing up to tackle some pretty big shows (i.e. HELLFEST and SEAROCK). What are you most looking forward to accomplish on these shows?

Nothing-we expect nothing. If we play in front of 200 people or 2000 - every show is the same-we give our best! We love it to play live and it doesn't matter if its in a small club or at the biggest stages-that's the reason why we make music. At this time we can't await our dates together with Lacuna Coil and Poisonblack here in Germany, Austria and Swiss and after that we'll see.

The band has been around for over 13 years and has played numerous shows with an abundance of bands. Are there any bands out right now that you'd love to tour with?

Yes, with The Cult, HIM and of course with Ozzy!

Christopher, I'd like to thank you for taking your time to sit down and talk to me. Is there anything you'd like to say to those out there who are reading this?

We work on many specials these days- everybody who bought the CD get the link for a free exclusive download of a new acoustic version of one of the songs beside the video clip the making of and the bonus track! Just send the order-confirmation to mail@lacrimas.com! Our mercher has always free Jägermeister for everybody and check out the material at the live gigs and we always try to give a lot of bonus material and stuff like that for the fans for free-so see you the next days-cheers!

www.lacrimas.com