IVORY NIGHT – Interview with Carsten Kettering

WITH HEINO ON TOUR?!
IVORY NIGHT´s bass torturer Carsten Kettering answered me a few questions concerning the 2004 album “7” and the heavy metal generally, as well as the South America (!) tour. Furthermore he told me that and why he is his biggest fan… 😉 Enjoy:

Hello Carsten! Thanks for bringing a bit of time. Last year you released your debut album called „7 – Dawn of the night“. It´s been a time ago now, but it´s still a thing I want to talk about with you… Tell me, where are you from, who are you guys and how, where and when did the story about IVORY NIGHT begin?

Hello Tanja, we are from Kaiserslautern (Germany), the actual capital and metal hometown of Rhineland-Palatinate 😉 Our band consists of 4 guys: 2 guitarists, drums and bass, whereas one of our guitarists is our singer at the same time. IVORY NIGHT formerly was a school band that was founded by our singer Patrick Fuchs under the name „BAD MEAN TONE“. Because of endless line up changes in the band, we now have the strongest line up since 2004, not at least because of our new drummer Volker. So you can say that IVORY NIGHT has been existing for around 8 years now.

Where did you record „7 – Dawn of the night“ ?

Our fabulous album „7“ was recorded in Dusseldorf/Germany. Actually only the drums and vocals. The guitars and the bass guitar were finally done in front of our home PC. Tilmann, our guitarist did the end mix in a record time, if you consider the high demands that the band had due to the product.

Who of you is responsible for the songwriting?

Every single member of the band is responsible for the songwriting. The songs come alive while playing jam sessions. Sometimes I bring ideas for a complete song. But we work with them until the whole band is satisfied with it. A song has to please the whole band to get a chance to be played live. So to speak, we always have „building lots“ and songs that wait to get finished.

How does the songwriting process go in detail? How do you start, what comes first and what comes next?

Also differently. One time you have got the ideas of a special subject and a second time you write the lyrics first and work out a riff afterwards. It also happens that our drummer has got a rhythm on his mind and we then write a song. Sometimes we are lucky and a song is finished after two rehearsals, for example „FALLEN FATHER“ and „THE END“, which you can gaze on our upcoming disc. These songs had been managed that well due to the arrangements and stuff at home, so we just had to start playing. Compared to that, „KEEPING THE LIE“ nearly took 2 months until it was perfect.

How did you find the band name „IVORY NIGHT“? Which meaning does it have?

Originally it was like that – if I am informed well by Patrick: He wanted to name the band „IVORY TOWER“. That means something like the inner cohesion. But because Tilmann said, there´s already a band called like that, they decided to use the alternative „NIGHT“. For me personally, the name has got the meaning as follows: The night during which we play a concert, where the band lies in its personal playing character and their melodic but heavy songs, show the audience a spotless white night, where you will speak of days after. So we had the honour after the AStA summer party in Kaiserslautern that a visitor came to me and said, this was his best metal concert he has ever visited. And this is what I am standing for, when I am on stage with those genious musicians. Just to transfuse the feeling and the inspiration to the audience.

Could you already get a name locally?

Yes, you can say that. In clubs we play in front of around 80-120 people and then the location is full. Through the open airs in Kaiserslautern with more than 2000 people in front of our stage, at the university area 2004 and 05 and the press reviews because of that, I know that the band belongs to the top 5 in the scene here. And there is a bunch of good bands here in Kaiserslautern…

What about the metal scene where you live? Are there many metalheads? Paderborn for example somehow is the thrash highlight. Which metal direction rules in Kaiserslautern?

In Kaiserslautern we have besides DIORAMIC (Future Metal, they are best newcomers of Germany) bands like DIVINUS, who also play melodic metal. WARCHILD have been in that business for a long time now, too. Furthermore VANDEN PLAS as well as the singer of SALTATIO MORTIS come from Kaiserslautern and neighbourhood. DARK also were a big newcomer band a few years ago.. You can say that heavy metal/hard rock freshens up Kaiserslautern. Ok, there are also cover bands a dime a dozen or hip hop bands. You cannot complain about the music here in Kaiserslautern. A lot of things are happening.

What about concerts in the near future?

On November 4, 2005 we play our annual concert in the JuZ in Kaiserslautern. Moreover we will play a concert on December 15, 2005 as support for SALTATIO MORTIS on their „DES KÖNIGS HENKER TOUR 2005“ in the „Kammgarn“ Kaiserslautern. For 2006 we plan to play a few concerts in Germany and Italy with our Italian friends in DARK HORIZON. In 2007 we will have a South America tour. For the ones who want to spend their vacation in Peru, Equador and perhaps Bolivia, can join us 😉

Which band do you like?

Everything started with MANOWAR. Because of that I played in the Manowar cover band MEN OF WAR. Alice Cooper always will be one of my absolute favourites, because that man could convince with first class albums through all the years and he still becomes better and better, the older he gets… musically seen, of course :-). And I  also like MARILYN MANSON, although he disappointed me during his last tour, because he only played 70 minutes and Twiggy (bassist) left the band. And I adore DEVIN TOWNSEND, his solo project as well as STRAPPIN YOUNG LAD. Furthermore I like LACUNA COIL, BRUCE DICKINSON, IRON MAIDEN and AXEL RUDI PELL. Besides everything that I like, it also may be pop-rock like for example ROXSETTE or BON JOVI. But the first position is in any case IVORY NIGHT, because I love the songs, independent, if I play in that band or not.

Your music style is not black, not death, nor power metal… How would you describe it?

I would describe our music with „melodic heavy rock“. The newer songs are made of death, trash, industrial and also rock influences. We try to sound differently with every song. It should be music for everybody´s taste. Basically I am not much into the single descriptions. You should simply say metal. That´s just market strategy to catch new, young fans. In former times, BLACK SABBATH were heavy metal. Today we would say hard rock.

Are the lyrics very important for you?

For me, yes. I like writing songs about mythology, like CHARON OF STYX. But I also want to draw attention with songs like THE END to the current situation of the world. It´s also fun to create own, little stories. But each text of me should include a little message. This is also the opinion of our singer, who is responsible for the lyrics besides me.

Which subjects does „7 – Dawn of the night“ include?

We don´t have any concept story behind „7“. Many songs include privat subjects, life experiences as well as happenings of this world

Which meaning does „Heavy Metal“ have for you personally?

Heavy metal is just fun for me. It is a complex music, where the musician can bloom like a flower. Unfortunately there are a lot of bands that only copy. Surely you can hear different influences when you listen to our album, but we haven´t copied a style or even stolen it. If you have a look at the whole metal industry, then you can say that many bands are unnecessary.

Why would you recommend your album?

Well, there I can only tell you the opinion of different people who independently told me the same things: It´s not just an easy thing, which you have enough from after one time in your CD player, but it is still fun listening to it again and again. And no song is annoying. Furthermore I can tell you, get your copy, because we won´t print a reissue of that album. So, someone will have a copy of limited 1000 issues worldwide.

Where can people buy your CD´s?

From every music/electric shop in Germany, from our homepage, as well as a download from popular music download portals like musicload.de or fintunes.de. Of course you can also get it at our concerts.

I really like your songs. Small items are only: the unfirm voice of your singer and partly not enough rhythm guitars beneath the solos. What do you think about that?

I am happy to hear that you like our CD. About the items I actually cannot say anything, because I don´t know where those points should be. You can say, I listen to that CD every day and I cannot recognize anything profounding. But you have to add that we recorded everything by ourselves and in a way that the band thought it was okay. Patrick is very hard to himself and he left his vocals like he liked it to that point in time. Today he would change some stuff, but that only shows the development of a band. The rhythm guitar that you miss bitterly, actually is only in the song TWILIGHT INTO DARKNESS. There we left out the rhythm guitars knowingly. In that song, two guitars have a battle with each other in the solo part. So just bass guitar and drums go ahead. A wanted arrangement in that song. Basically everything is a question of taste.

Which is your favourite song on your disc and why?

Every song is my favourite song, because the CD is just super. Watch the songs as your own child. No matter how ugly it is, you will always love it, because it´s from you. But IVORY NIGHT do not create ugly children 😉

How far do you wanna go with IVORY NIGHT? Is IVORY NIGHT a fund band or something serious?

We´ll take it as it comes. Effectively a few labels are interested in working together with us. We will see how we will make up our minds within the next year or for the next album. You see, it´s something serious. Because for quitting all, we have had too much success in what we do. So we do not want to stop it now.

Who was in charge of the cover artwork?

Tilmann and me had the idea for the concept. But Jochen Stichler did the artwork. He´s the keyboardist in Tilmann´s second band WARCHILD.

You already played concerts with Brainstorm and Majesty that I really like to see live. Would you like to tour with them?

I even would tour with HEINO (German folk musician, listened by old women 😉 haha), just to show ourselves in front of a bigger audience 😉

Yes, all jokes aside. It would be a little dream come true for me to tour with bands that have a bigger fanbase. Simply just to have a look at the personal abilities, how fit you are as a band, to compare stuff.

Is there any chance to see you on a (little) tour in the near future at all??

Yes, 2007 the South America tour. We are discussing about 20 concerts in 4 weeks. Besides we will exchange some gigs with other bands. We´ll see what will happen the upcoming year.

Your words for the metalheads:

Have a look at our homepage. www.ivorynight.de Listen to the MP3 files and support us by buying our CD. Just visit a concert. You will definitely not regret it. And to all of our enviers: FUCK YOU!!! You will hear the shot…

Thanks, Carsten! I rarely had such a nice conversational partner! So I just have to say: Good luck for the South America tour!

Website: www.ivorynight.de
Line-Up:
Patrick Fuchs – Vocals, Guitars
Tilmann Ruby – Guitars, Backing Vocals
Carsten Kettering – Bass, Backing Vocals
Volker Schick – Drums
Contact:
Ivory Night
c/o Carsten Kettering
Kaffeegasse 10
66879 Reichenbach
contact@ivorynight.de
Discographie:
1997: quod erat demonstrandum I – unreleased promo tape
1998: Demo '98 – official Demo-CD
1998: quod erat demonstrandum III – unreleased tape
2000: Into The Night – unreleased Demo-CD
2003: Limited Edition – limited EP
2004: 7 – Dawn Of The Night – Debut Album