A Dirty Dozen with OLIVER NIKOLAS from LACRIMAS PROFUNDERE – July 2022

According to a recent press release: “Today, Lacrimas Profundere have finally unleashed “The Curtain Of White Silence”, the third single from their upcoming new album How To Shroud Yourself With Night. This track is very important to the band, because it’s proof that you can still come up with something new, surprising, and different. Music is art and art is brave! Gothic meets Metalcore… sounds strange? Check it out. The new chapter has just begun… The new track is accompanied by a music video (see below) and can be streamed. The new studio album from Lacrimas Profundere, How To Shroud Yourself With Night, will see an August 26, 2022 release via SPV / Steamhammer.” We get Oliver to discuss new music, influences, and more…

1. Tell us a little about your latest release.  What might a fa or listener not grab the first or second time they listen through?  Are there any hidden nuggets you put in the material or that only diehard fans might find?

There are! We’ve recorded as many melodies into the songs as Finland has lakes, so listen via earphones and you will enter another world.

2. What got you into music, and can you tell us about the moment you realized you wanted to be a musician?

I started with guitar songbooks of the bands I loved back in the days, such as Slayer, Overkill, Metallica, and learned them by trial and error. It started as a hobby, but when I got some friends together and founded a band, we thought someday we will be the biggest rock stars… laughs. So the motivation was: never do anything consciously, let yourself drift no matter how long it takes, and the worst-case scenario is to be alive for 30 years and you still have to explain your band name at every airport you go to.

3. Building on that, is there a specific song, album, performer, or live show that guided your musical taste”

I really love the Paradise Lost records, Icon and Shades of God. First live show was Manowar at their Kings of Metal tour in Munich. I was 15 years old and lost a bet against a friend of mine with the question:  who was playing the guitar on the album. I knew that David Shankle was on stage and thought he was responsible for the recordings also, but twenty bucks later I knew, that the almighty Ross The Boss did it.

4. If you could call in any one collaborator to do a song with, who would it be, and why?

Zakk Wylde, cool player, and real funny guy, and reminds me very often of our former drummer Korl.

5. What is your favorite activity when out of the studio and/or not on tour?  What do you like to do to unwind?

Watching TV, I´m addicted to streaming services. And my wife, cause she still said I´m not fat and that she likes my body. This is really cool; cause I believe her.

6. How would you describe your music to someone who’d never listened to you before? What is the one comparison a reviewer or fan has made that made you cringe or you disagreed with?

HIM, in our long history I was never influenced by any albums of these guys. Describe our music? The new album crosses the borders of genres because music should touch, comfort, and heal, doesn’t matter what genre. Is GothCore already born? If not, here we are. I would say to that guy, grab a beer and I tell you a long story about a storm of emotions, the door to another world and that this album is proof that you can still come up with something new, surprising, and different and all that stuff, but the best is to let the others talk, cause talking about something you did by your own is always uncool I think. So, I remember reading comments about the first singles on YouTube like “I feel the song takes my hand and says it’s all right, I’ll guide you” or “this is life.” Only so much be said that there are people that feel the rain and others only get wet. This album is for the feelers, laughs!

7. When your band is hanging out together, who cooks, who gets the drinks in, and who is first to crack out the acoustic guitars for a singalong?

The delivery service cooks, sometimes Julian. Ilker I would say always find the drinks, even when you think there is nothing left.

8. When was the last time you were starstruck and who was it?

Three weeks ago at the show of the German Band: Accept. We played together at a festival here in Germany and these guys really kicked some ass and what can I say, is “Princess Of The Dawn” a banger? Fuck yes!

9. What is the best part of being a musician? If you could no longer be a musician for whatever reason, what would be your dream job?

The best part is to get entrance to VIP and meet your heroes there. You know, I’m still a fanboy. I got the chance to write two songs together with Ricky Warwick for one of our albums and he invited me to the VIP area at a Guns ‘n’ Roses show a month later. He was with Thin Lizzy; I was like a little kid. Same as I met Bobby Blitz of Overkill. What I’d do if I wasn’t a musician? I like to play tennis, but was never good enough to make it into matches outside of my hometown, so, it seems I´m a better off as a musician…

10. What is one question you have always wanted an interviewer to ask – and what is the answer? Conversely, what question are you tired of answering?

Tired to talk about the beginnings of the band or at the airport if you always have to pronounce your band name. You know, you went with a guitar to the airport and 10 Seconds later the first guy asks you about playing in a band and where you are from… In South America we said, Slayer, Metallica and had so much fun to look into their faces. But one time we said Maiden and they said, stop our airport chief is a real adorer and we should wait a sec to shoot some photos with him. Shit happens… Question we should be asked? What would you take with you on a lonely island, laughs! Ah and one question is still unanswered, why nobody told me how stupid my mustache was looking like back in the days…

11. Looking back over your career, is there a single moment or situation you feel was a misstep or you would like to have a “do over,” even if it didn’t change your current situation?

Yeah many, but eventually I’m just stubborn, laughs! I believe in what I’m doing. At the very beginning we were driving to a rehearsal room twice a week thirty kilometers away from our home. A room without heating and water above a carpentry. During that time, my friends went to parties or swimming. We locked ourselves up in this rehearsal room, sweated in the summer and froze in the winter, with only one goal: to create something special that wanted to be heard.  When you start making music and writing your own songs, trying to get a band together you already ask yourself what you want to achieve one day. Everyone does. If you say you want to be the biggest rock star on earth, that’s fine, and that’s how it should be with every band. On the other hand, if you give up in frustration at the first blowout, the first snow chaos before the borders of London or the second gig in front of twenty people in the youth center next door, it’s not the right thing for you. You have to persevere.

12. If you could magically go back in time and be a part of the recording sessions for any one record in history, which would you choose – and what does that record mean to you?

Our debut release and I would say, stop it and learn to play your instruments first.

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Category: Interviews