THE HOUSE OF USHER interview (part 3)

“The trust that everything has a deeper meaning…”

In the first two parts (you can read the first part here), we talked extensively with Jörg about “Echosphere”, covered everything from artificial intelligence to melancholy, took a trip back to the beginnings of the gothic rock band founded in 1990 and are now focusing on hope.

Orkus: I can hear a glimmer of hope in “For the Rest of My Days”. In what mood was this piece created?
Jörg Kleudgen: Our songs, especially the ones that Markus writes, always have a hopeful component. The text was written in the short time between sleeping and waking after an intense dream. Originally, I had written a completely different text for this piece and the music was more of a quiet ballad. But then I felt this comforting and conciliatory power inside me that I really wanted to put into practice. So I wrote a new text and completely rearranged the piece.

O: What gives you personal hope?
JK: The trust that everything has a deeper meaning, which I sometimes don’t understand at the time. I also try to take something away from negative events. A stroke of fate might move me to write a story or a song lyric. But perhaps a negative event is also necessary to get me out of the comfort zone described above.

O: I was also particularly touched by “Garlands and Mistletoes”. Waiting in vain for someone who won’t come back … how did you approach the subject?
JK: When Markus sent me his demo, the mood reminded me of “Love Vigilantes” by New Order. I have tried to describe the situation from the opposite point of view. In the New Order play, a soldier describes his longing for his beloved wife and his home. He seems to be on his way there. But when he arrives home, he realizes that he is a ghost and that his wife has just received the news that he has been killed in the war. “Garlands and Mistletoes” expresses the irrational hope that, after many years, everything could take a happy turn and a miracle could happen. It is a song against war, and I believe that in this day and age, in which war is accepted as a seemingly unavoidable means – we need songs again that make us aware of the effects on individual lives.

O: Inspired by “Believers”: Do you believe in life after death?
JK: That … is difficult and cannot be answered in a few sentences. Basically, it doesn’t matter because I have no influence on what will happen. I think that death can also have something conciliatory about it. I have seen people who were ready to leave because they could look back on a fulfilled life. I’m not ready yet. There are still quite a few things to do …

O: How do you feel about “the scene” today? What do you like and what perhaps less?
JK: I think the scene itself has naturally aged, and it’s also more fragmented than it used to be. I liked it when I used to go out and listen to Skinny Puppy right after The Sisters of Mercy, or new German bands like Myrna Loy next to all the classics. Today, there is a party for virtually every niche. It has become more difficult to reach adjacent target groups. And if you deviate from the clear path, this can easily be interpreted as “betrayal”. For example, I have just sung a piece for the Leipzig electro duo Gintronic, and they have reinterpreted “Echoes” in their own way in return. We are considering releasing these two songs on a 10″ vinyl record. I’m sure that this will be viewed critically by the fans who like us as they have known us for years, but I find this foray into a different genre very exciting!

O: What are the future plans for The House of Usher?
JK: We are currently working on a new live program and a new stage presence, which I call “Thou 2.0”. At WGT we will be performing at an interesting festival in the Hellraiser Club (with Girls under Glass, Still Patient? and The Waning Moon, among others), and we don’t just want to reproduce the program we played in Bruges, Athens and Bolkow in 2023.

I’m particularly looking forward to a concert on November 22 in Bochum. Then we will play pieces from the individual phases in various original line-ups from 1993 to the present day, songs from “Black Sunday” and “Stars Fall Down” (1993/94), “Zephyre” (1996), “Cosmogenesis” (1998) and so on …

This will be a big family reunion that no fan should miss!

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

For the last time: the “Dark Mystery” calendar 2024