THE HOUSE OF USHER interview (part 1)

“By perceiving the world through my ‘melancholic’ glasses, I reshape it.”

2 facts:
– The German Gothic Rock band The House of Usher was founded back in 1990.
– The name is of course inspired by Edgar Allan Poe’s“The Fall of the House of Usher”.

Echosphere” by The House of Usher was released last April. We took a lot of time to talk to Jörg about artificial intelligence, the origins of the band and other wildly romantic ideas.

Orkus: What inspired you to come up with the melodious album title “Echosphere”?
Jörg Kleudgen: I can’t remember exactly. The term was there at some point and I couldn’t get it out of my mind. That’s always a good sign for me. Some titles wear out after a short time. But the likes of “Radio Cornwall”, “Cosmogenesis” or “Echosphere” are timelessly beautiful in my eyes and sometimes gain even more over the years.

O: What is an echosphere?
JK: I associated something specific with this self-invented word right from the start. However, it only gained its final meaning later when I wrote the accompanying story. The term describes the invisible sphere that surrounds us and which we perceive as reality. Just as external impressions influence us, we change our world through our perception and our thinking.

O: The album cover is particularly atmospheric and reminds me a bit of the Romantic era. How did it come about?
JK: Well, unfortunately it wasn’t created romantically at all, but with the help of an AI program. I try to use the latest developments in technology, for example by tracing an AI-generated image by hand and reinterpreting it. I don’t do anything else when I’m out in nature with my sketchpad. In principle, however, I am rather critical of the “AI” phenomenon. At first glance, the results produced may take your breath away. But quite soon – at least in my opinion – they lose their appeal. They are not original, but merely copy and paste what already exists in order to rearrange it. In this respect, one cannot speak of “creativity” in this context.

O: So would you say that romance is also a source of inspiration for The House of Usher?
JK: The House of Usher, with its origins in horror literature, to which I am also attached as an author, can definitely be classified as Romanticism. I generally have a romantic view of the world and put things I observe into new, sometimes unusual contexts in order to understand what is behind them. I am more drawn to (wild and romantic) nature than to the man-made, urban world, and it is no coincidence that we live in a half-timbered house from the eighteenth century that is full of mysteries.

O: Would you describe yourself as “melancholic”?
JK: Yes, but not in a pathological sense. I think this follows naturally from what has been said above, and it ties in nicely with the meaning of the “echosphere”. By perceiving the world through my “melancholic” glasses, I reshape it. Although I depict reality in my stories, illustrations and song lyrics, I interpret them and try to find a deeper meaning in them. This is nothing other than what the Romantics did. This way of looking at things naturally rubs off on me. That’s why I think … yes, I am melancholic and I like to enjoy this feeling.

In the next part, we talk about guitars that sound best with guitars and more guitars, breaking out of the treadmill and much more.

Claudia Zinn-Zinnenburg

Line-up:
Jörg Kleudgen – vocals, arrangements
Markus Pick – guitars, bass guitars
Ralf Dunkel – bass guitars, synthesizer
Georg Berger – guitars, synthesizer
Gerwin Spalink – drums, synthesizer
Thomas Walther – acoustic guitars, melotron, vocals

Listen to “Dreamin’ of You” here: