Interviewee: Ace Renner
Year: 2008
Website: www.presidentevil.de
MySpace: myspace.com/presidentevil
Label: AFM Records
Featured on: Loucifer Speaks Exclusive!
Well, it's been a couple of weeks since the President Evil gig in London. Now that the dust has settled, the ringing in my ears has subsided and the ache in my neck has faded away, I have the urge to share the interview with Ace Renner with you...
I last interviewed President Evil almost 2 years ago when they were the main support act for Ministry in 2006. Last time I spoke to front man Johnny Holze, whereas this time I had the pleasure of guitarist Ace Renner's company.
I arrived at The World's End in Camden at around 5 o'clock. I bought myself a pint of Blackthorn, left a few flyers near the front door and then proceeded to wait for the band to arrive. The band arrived at around 6pm, but I didn?t mind since by that point the cider had given me that nice, warm, fuzzy feeling. Unfortunately we couldn't do the interview in The World's End since it was far too noisy and The Underworld was out of the question because there were sound checks going on, so we were left with one option - the tour bus. While the President Evil guys played 'find the van keys' I soon found myself with another Blackthorn. I remember thinking "this is gonna be a great night". Eventually, after dashing in and out of the pub and the venue and then dashing across the road to the van (with my pint in hand - which was very naughty of me) we finally settled down and the interview began.
As I mentioned at the beginning of this article, it's been around 2 years since I last spoke this band and when I asked Ace what had happened since August 2006, he told me that the band had become more famous in their native Germany and he hoped they were also more well known in England too. Ace seemed to be in a great mood and was smiling throughout the interview and, even though he kept apologising for his English, there were no problems whatsoever. He also filled me in on who the band had shared the stage with since I last saw them.
"We were on tour with GWAR, y'know GWAR? In the German.. European tour in 2007 in April."
I found it difficult to picture President Evil - with their straight-up version of Rock/Metal/Punk - sharing the stage with a band famous for it's theatrics and make-up.
"They?re cool guys. Very calm and very funny. Onstage they go crazy, but when we met them backstage they were totally different people... No [they don't wear the make-up backstage], they're normal guys. This was the first time I saw them onstage, I had never heard of them."
Once I had recovered from the surprise of this unlikely pairing, Ace continued to tell me about the tours President Evil had taken part in.
"We toured through Germany with our friends from Motorjesus, another German band. You have to listen to them, they are really great."
Since I had seen some live videos of the band on YouTube, I asked Ace if President Evil had played any festivals.
"Summer Breeze is one you will know. [The videos were from] Rock Hard in the middle of Germany, but not from Summer Breeze."
Talk quickly turned to the band?s brand new album, "Hell In A Box", which was released through AFM records on 28th January. I asked Ace about his favourite tracks from the album.
"Hell In A Box, of course, that is my favourite and one called the Godforsaken, it's very cool... and, um, the second to last... I've forgotten the name!"
I pointed out that it was pretty bad of him to forget the name of his own band's song and he blamed the amount of alcohol he'd consumed over the past few days. Luckily, I can tell you that the song that Ace was talking about is "One Brain Army" and, if you listen to the album, you can see why he likes it so much. If it doesn't get you moving, then nothing will. Whenever I've spoken to, or watched President Evil, I've always had the feeling that they're having an immense amount of fun and fun is definitely a word that I'd use to describe their stage show. Ace commented that he hoped "King Asshole", from the new album, would turn out to be a good crowd pleaser as it had got fans moving in the past.
Since President Evil were only given a very small set at The Underworld, it didn't look likely that they would be able to play much from their previous album, so I was incredibly pleased when Ace told me that they were going to play "Demons Everywhere" - my favourite.
The band recently made a promotional video for ?Hell In A Box? and, since the video (like many music videos) is a little bit on the strange side, I decided I would try to find out what it was about.
"It?s really strange, but its not... erm... You have to look at the video with [points at his eye - I presumed this meant that you need to watch the video with an open mind]. It was a friend of ours that did this video because we didn?t have a lot of money to... er... rent a place and the story is that we [President Evil] go to Hell to do 'Pop Stars' and play in front of the Devil to get into Hell."
The video is really worth watching and I can only hope that it will be picked up by one of the music channels. It could be just the push that President Evil need to take them to the next step on the ladder... and these guys definitely deserve it. They always seem to be on tour or creating new music - they're definitely one of the most hardworking bands around at the moment. The band is even looking to put together a DVD in the near future featuring them on tour.
"We want to put this stuff on the DVD. I hope [to release it] in autumn. We worked on it last year, but it's a bit difficult since we don?t have a lot of time to do this. I think in autumn, or next year we will do the DVD."
I suggested that they should try to get it ready by Xmas so that I could put it on my Xmas list... I guess we can only wait and see what Santa will bring!
In both the new album and the previous album, the lyrical content always seemed to be quite dark and I found this to be strange when placed next to the lively stage show that the band give us. I asked Ace what the inspiration was behind the lyrics on "Hell In A Box".
"You'll have to ask our singer. I don't really care about lyrics, I have to say. The main element is the evil side of life. The angel and the evil inside you."
Despite the dark nature of the lyrics, the reaction to the new album from the press and - most importantly - the fans has been very positive. Ace commented that the album was recorded live in the studio, and I really think that this has helped get the essence of President Evil across.
Even though I couldn't imagine the President Evil guys walking around Big Ben while taking a few snaps with their cameras, I had to ask if the band had managed to fit in any sightseeing while they were here. "No, I?m very sad about that. There?s no time". I'm sure they'll get to do it sometime though... perhaps when they headline their own tour. I'll keep my fingers crossed!
Since I didn't really know much about Ace's tastes in music, I asked him which bands he felt should reform. "I'm a punk rocker so I was listening to German punk rock and skate punk bands... and the bands I was listening to are still alive! But, I think the Dead Kennedys would be good. But, I don't listen to Metal, the others [in President Evil] do."
I'm not much of a punk rocker myself, and when I heard that Ace didn't really listen to metal I have to admit that I was a bit surprised. But, we were able to come back onto common ground again when he filled me in on which band he thought should split up.
"There?s a German band... They are terrible... Or, the Spice Girls. I hate the Spice Girls. Such bad music!"
Even though I could have bitched about the Spice Girls all evening, I somehow managed to focus myself on the task at hand and discover a little more about the other bands on the tour.
"I like both of these bands. They are great - real live bands. Volbeat is very famous in Denmark, they got MTV awards. But, they're not so famous here in England. And, Kayser are from Sweden... we saw them in Hamburg and they were fantastic. We like them a lot! They're both real live bands and they get my vote! The tour was organised by the management and we knew Daniel, the tour manager from Volbeat."
I asked if President Evil would ever consider doing a split CD with either of these bands, but it looked like they'd already had a similar idea in the past... but not with a band from this tour...
"We talked about it with Motorjesus, our friends we toured with last year. Not with our labels, but on our own - just for fun."
To finish up, I thought I'd give the final words to Ace...
"Keep on going supporting President Evil and Trash N Roll Asshole... BE a trash n roll asshole!"