Interview with KLEZ.E (1/2)

In our two-part interview with Klez.e, we talk about the new album “Einmal mehr mit dir gegen die Furcht”, which will be released on June 5.

Klez.e and the moment when everything becomes clearer

Almost 25 years after their foundation, Klez.e suddenly sound more accessible than ever – and at the same time bigger, wider, more open. “Once more with you against fear” is not a break with the past, it is rather a ripping open of the windows. Fresh air streams in without the shadows disappearing. Perhaps that is precisely the point: against the fear, for the light. It doesn’t start in the studio, but on the ICE. Tobias Siebert is on his way back from a stag party, “a bit disheveled, but with a big smile”, as he says. Between mini golf, champagne and absurd costumes, the first idea for “Melancholia” is born. A moment that anticipates many things: Lightness that is not naive. Joy that knows it remains fleeting.

The end of clauses

Anyone who knows Klez.e also knows their old veils. The hints, the circling around, the not wanting to say anything. This album works differently. More direct. Clearer. Almost disarming. “I just listened to myself and wrote everything down directly,” says Siebert. What sounds like a simple decision is the result of a long journey. He used to hide behind the music, “less vulnerable, but very much what I wanted to say”. Now the word comes to the fore. A natural process, he says – “enriched with a somewhat consciously chosen break”. And this break is audible. In sentences that no longer evade. In images that are suddenly allowed to stand still.

A promise that gets bigger

The title “Once more with you against fear” sounds like an intimate sentence. Almost private. But it grows with every thought. “It starts on a small scale,” explains Siebert, “between two people”. But from there it expands: to bars, encounters, demonstrations. To everything that connects. “A promise that we won’t stop believing in the good.” This movement characterizes the entire album. Closeness is not romanticized, it is rather understood here as a counter-model. Against isolation. Against excessive demands. Against a world that is coming apart at the seams.

Jan Schütz (Meersein)

Line-up:
Tobias Siebert – vocals, guitar, bass, keyboards
Daniel Moheit – keyboard, bass
Filip Pampuch – drums

We will continue our interview shortly.

You can also find Klez.e in our May/June issue:

Listen to Klez.e in our “Current Issue” playlist on Spotify: