Lord Of The Lost - Interview

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Published on Monday, 10 April 2023 21:13

Lord Of The Lost entered the scene in 2007, and who doesn't know this name by now? The German genre-fusing visionaries and phenomena took the entire music world by a big bang releasing its eighth studio album, Blood & Glitter, virtually overnight on 30 December 2022 via Napalm Records. After the great success of its previous album, Judas, the band has turned almost 180 degrees, as visually as thematically, with this new full-length effort. The extensive touring throughout 2022, including as a special guest of Iron Maiden on its Legacy Of The Beast world tour, brought them much recognition. The band will be touring as special guests with Iron Maiden again this year, and, of course, Lord Of The Lost will bring a glamorous party between dark glam rock and metal to the Eurovision Song Contest 2023 in Liverpool (UK) on Saturday 13 May, where the band will represent Germany with the title track of its current #1 album Blood & Glitter. The band always goes its way, defying all clichés, prejudices, genre norms and conventions and making strong statements in terms of content. It's Lord Of The Lost, and if you have something against it, "leave your hate in the comments", but perhaps better proceed with reading the interview with the guitarist Pi Stoffers.

Interview with: Pi Stoffers
Conducted by: Tomaz and Jerneja
Edited by: Jerneja

Jerneja: Hello Pi, and thank you for the interview. Tomaz and I saw you playing live last summer at the Summer Breeze Festival, and it was an amazing show, one of the best. Although it was the first time for us, I believe it's in the Lord Of The Lost "nature" to bring such outstanding shows. But let's start with something more current, so congratulations on being voted up to represent Germany in this year's Eurovision Song Contest. Were you surprised when you got nominated, and were you all in for this journey right away, or were some persuasions needed?
Pi: Thank you! Haha, yes, we were talking about this the other day; we were asked the same question, and we actually looked and searched our WhatsUp band-chat conversation about our reactions. It was 30 seconds after Chris sent the voicemail, "guys, we have an opportunity to go to the Eurovision preliminaries", and we were all answering, "yes, let's go". There wasn't any discussion about it - it was a gut feeling for us. A gut feeling said yes, so we did it. Even though we were convinced that we wanted to go, we didn't expect anything. You don't expect to win; this expectation doesn't exist in my head.

Jerneja: Did the fact that Germany has placed very low in the Eurovision Song Contests for many years contribute to your decision? Or, did you somehow also want to help your country?
Pi: For the past few years, Germany's choices with artists sent there, and I'm not saying that they are bad artists or anything like that - that's completely not the case - but it was always very foreseeable. Nothing was unexpected, no edge to anything. It felt like being played safe. Because we are a band from a very small niche in the music industry, and with the genres that we are in, we were convinced that we could bring something new to the table and make it a little bit more colourful. I think that it worked. Even if I'm looking at Eurovision's other contestants, it's such a diverse and wide field with everybody. There are so many different artists, and we are among them. No one is like any other, and this is great. I think that we are a great fit for it, yeah.

Jerneja: Did you already smell the victory in the German contest, Unser Lied für Liverpool? We were watching the show but didn't understand much since we don't speak German, at least not fluently. Nevertheless, it wasn't looking that well for Lord Of The Lost during and after the international voting, but I suspected you would win anyway...
Pi: Yes, after the international jury's votes, we didn't expect to win. Ok, we also knew that we wouldn't be in last place because we have a fan community that is too strong for that, which, in the end, got us first place. I didn't smell any victory.

Jerneja: Did you get to choose the song "Blood & Glitter" by yourself, or was it suggested with the nomination?
Pi: We chose it, of course.

Jerneja: "Leaving The Planet Earth" with "tired of all of you" would probably be too provocative, haha?
Pi: I don't know if it's too provocative or anything.

Tomaz: Some years ago, Lord Of The Lost was not that well-known worldwide. Only after you joined Iron Maiden on tour and now representing Germany on Eurovision, things must have changed quite a lot for you, not only for all of you as musicians but also in your personal lives...
Pi: I think that we are at the very beginning of realizing what all of this means. Even before Iron Maiden, we were quite at a good level for us. We toured almost the whole world at a respectable size. Obviously, with Iron Maiden, we got some more traction and new audiences. Of course, Eurovision is a huge stage, and mainstream attention is drawn towards you, but I can't say anything now because we are just at the beginning of it. So far, I've only realised the positive effects of it. Sure that with Eurovision we are, as people, exposed to many new people who want to know things from our private life as well. Nevertheless, I can't say anything negative about it yet because I haven't experienced it for long enough.

Tomaz: Your previous album, Judas, is a masterpiece and, in my opinion, the best album you've released. Regarding your latest record, Blood & Glitter, being at some points similar to Judas and even released soon after, I wonder whether they were simultaneously in the making.
Pi: No, no, because Judas was recorded in 2020, and Blood & Glitter in March 2022. So, no, they weren't recorded simultaneously. We started writing Blood & Glitter right after the release of Judas.

Tomaz: I find Blood & Glitter an album with much humour and irony. Did you try to make a joke out of some things, and what's the message behind it?
Pi: It's not a secret that we don't take ourselves too seriously, but I don't think that Blood & Glitter is a humourous album, even though it's not topic-wise as heavy as Judas. It has not such a deep story as Judas as well. Judas is a huge concept, and you can dive deep into this double album. Blood & Glitter is much more compact, in a way, and way more uplifting and joyous - if that's what you meant by saying it was humorous. Probably with the song "Leave Your Hate In The Comments", you are true to that. It is our way of dealing with hate. We made a song where we basically talk to everyone who has thrown hate towards us. We are exposing them, talking to them and giving them a stage. We literally say leave your hate in the comments, but they are only exposing themselves, as we described in the song's lyrics. The overall concept of Blood & Glitter is much less of a story than Judas, but it's much more a celebration of diversity; a celebration of life. We are celebrating life, but we are also, I think, taking some very critical standpoints. We are exposing things the way we see them, and we are much more explicit.

Tomaz: Yeah, this song, "Leave Your Hate In The Comments", made me think of that exactly. Also, with your videos, which I find full of irony, you give quite a strong message. I guess it comes from personal experiences, and I wonder if you get a lot of hateful comments.
Pi: You only need to look at the comments section on YouTube videos. For example, in the comments of "The Gospel Of Judas" video, there's so much homophobic hate which is astounding. In every post that we do, there's a little bit of hate somewhere. Yes, the positivity outweighs the hate by far. We are, and we want to be, a band that polarizes, and we want to put our fingers in wounds and expose them. That draws some hate for sure. In the video "Leave Your Hate In The Comments", you can see hate comments running through the screen. All of them - except one we made up - are real, and it only took me 15 minutes to collect them. So, that says a lot. This song and some others are autobiographical because, after all, this is our perspective on things.

Tomaz: As you said, this actually says a lot about people... You released the last three albums via Napalm Records, and I wonder how satisfied you are with their job and the label in general.
Pi: We can't complain at all. They gave us next to 100% of trust and also 100% of creative freedom, which you can't necessarily expect from a label. Some labels want to hear every demo from the very first notes you've played on. Napalm Records is different. We present to them the record when it's finished, and they are like, "yes sure, do it, we believe in you". These are, for us, the most important things, authenticity and creative freedom, and we get both from our label. I can say that we are very satisfied, yeah.

Tomaz: Now, please tell us some words about the tour with Iron Maiden. It will continue this year as well. How does it feel to share the stage with maybe the most popular and significant heavy metal band of all time?
Pi: It's quite an experience, in a most positive way, really. It completely proves the saying "never met your idols wrong". When we came to the production on the first day, I thought the first show was in Croatia - we didn't know what to expect. In a way, we expected to say yes to everything and to just not be in the way, and we weren't, but from the first second, we were welcomed as a tour family. They were saying to us that we were not a support band but a special guest. This respect was given to us every day, and they were so very helpful and humble. Their crew is amazing, and the guys from Iron Maiden still love doing what they do, and as you said, they are one of the biggest heavy metal bands in the world, and they don't need to prove anything to anyone. They are so humble and so friendly, always nice and looking out for their support band. So, for us, it was a great experience; it was also a great learning experience because if we can be at that level of giving respect to others all the time, we are doing something right, and we would like to retain that for ourselves as well. It was a great experience, and I'm very much looking out to this summer - to doing it again and seeing them again.

Tomaz: Most likely, every band in this world hopes for such an experience, but only a rare of them get a chance. Now, back to Blood & Glitter. The album was released as a surprise, and in a way, also as a promotional experiment. Did it pay off releasing it this way? Will you do it again this way, or do you think it is better to promote it in the usual way, with three or four singles, videos, and pre-orders before its official release?
Pi: I mean, the album went to the number one position in the charts with only six days of pre-sale and basically no promo. So, it was an experiment, and the experiment was very successful. I can't say we'll do the same every time because then it's not a surprise anymore - but we will certainly keep that in mind. Who knows. I guess the next album will be promoted in the "usual" way, with some months of pre-sale, singles, music videos and all of that. We don't know yet, but what we know is that if you have a working system and place like us, our label and fans that are maybe the most loyal fans that you can ask for, then you can put out a surprise album and make it a success by going to the number one in the album charts. We don't need the usual way, but we will see what we do with the next album.

Tomaz: And what about your outfits that you are wearing for the promotion and on videos for Blood & Glitter? You wore the same also for the German Eurovision contest, and I wonder who made this creation and where the inspiration came from.
Pi: We draw the inspiration from the 70s and 80s. We looked at the photo book Blood And Glitter by Mick Rock, the pictures of David Bowie, Freddie Mercury, Suede, and all that. We asked ourselves what we liked about these outfits and how to make them "us" and go above and beyond. We hired a designer, her brand is handmade with blood, and we told her what we wanted. In the first week, she sent us sketches, which were basically the finished outfits. We haven't had to change much. They were designed and made from the ground up.

Tomaz: Will you be dressed in the same costumes also in Liverpool at the Eurovision Song Contest, or will you surprise us once again?
Pi: They will be updated, and that's all I can say at the moment. You won't see the same thing.

Jerneja: I could come up with more questions, Tomaz probably too, but since you reminded us "our" half hour was about to end, I only wish to congratulate you also on Judas and Blood & Glitter albums placing second best twice in a raw in our annual competition - Terra Relicta Dark Music Awards. And - we look forward to attending your show again, Hopefully soon.
Pi: Thank you for the nomination; that's great. Thank you also for the interview, and I hope to see you at one of our upcoming shows.

Lord Of The Lost discography:
- Fears (2010)
- Antagony (2011)
- Die Tomorrow (2012)
- From The Flame Into The Fire (2014)
- Swan Song (2015)
- Swan Symphonies (Instrumental Soundtrack Version) (2015)
- Empyrean (2016)
- Swan Song II (2017)
- Thornstar (2018)
- Swan Song III (2020)
- Swan Song III (Instrumental Soundtrack Version) (2020)
- Judas (2021)
- Blood & Glitter (2022)

Lord Of The Lost links: Official website, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Spotify, Wikipedia, YouTube

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