Interviewee: Jurgen
Year: 2008
Website: theudho.com
MySpace: myspace.com/theudho
Label: Det Germanske Folket
Featured on: Loucifer Speaks Exclusive... So far!
The music of Theudho first crossed my path one day while I was lurking on MySpace (MySpace seriously does have a lot to answer for!). I quickly became hooked on this band's own particular form of metal and soon found myself ordering their current album ("Cult of Wuotan") and a t-shirt (for the very good price of 20 euros!). Soon after that fateful day, Jurgen (the guy responsible for the band's guitars and vocals) agreed to answer a few of my questions... and here's the result...
Lou: Hi and thanks for taking the time out to answer my questions. First of all I've got a couple of things to ask about the band's name. First of all, where does the name Theudho come from and what does it mean?
Jurgen: The name "Theudho" is a simplified spelling for the Proto-Germanic word "Þeuðo" and means "people" or "nation". I stumbled upon it in an obscure book on Germanic mythology and culture.
The word "Þeuðo" evolved into the Gothic "þiuda" and the Old Norse "þíoð" as well as in several modern Germanic languages; "Duits" and "Diets" in Dutch, "Deutsch" in German, "Dutch" in English and "Tysk" in Swedish, Norwegian and Danish.
For a band with a lyrical focus on pre-Christian myths, legends and history spanning the whole Germanic cultural realm, this seemed to be the perfect name.
Lou: Secondly, (and this one is very important to me!), how do you pronounce Theudho?
Jurgen: Now is the time to admit I didn’t pay very much attention in English Phonetics class … [?ø:’ðo], does that make any sense?
Lou: Who is currently in the band? I understand that you also have a temporary live line-up?
Jurgen: That's correct. Our lead guitarist Bastiaan relocated to another country for a couple of months, so we brought in a temporary replacement for him. We were lucky enough to find a kick ass lead guitarist just around the corner, a virtuoso who seems to enjoy learning complicated guitar solos in a limited amount of time. Total Marty Friedman and Vinnie Moore worship.
Anyway, the current live line-up is:
Dieter: Lead guitars
Frederik: Bass guitar & backing vocals
Joachim: Drums & percussion
Jurgen: Guitars & vocals
I'm eager to perform with this line-up as I'm sure it will kick maximum butt.
Lou: You have a new album out (as you know!) called "Cult of Wuotan". How well has it been received so far, by both critics and fans?
Jurgen: The reviews are very polarized. Some reviewers love the new album to death, others complain because it doesn't sound like band X or Y. They probably see our cover, think "okay this is pagan stuff" and then expect folk tunes and lyrics about happy little elves and naughty beer drinking trolls.
Obviously we care more about what people who obtain our albums and visit our concerts think. Of course you can't argue taste, but judging by the amount of positive mail we receive every day, I think we must have done something right with this album.
Lou: How long did the album take to record and were there any mishaps along the way?
Jurgen: If I recall correctly, we started tracking the album in the fall of 2007 up to January 2008.
Nothing really went wrong during the recording. Since we recorded the album in our very modest home studio, as we also did with the previous two albums, there is very little stress involved. We don't need to worry about every single minute costing us a ridiculous amount of money. This allows us to keep an open mind throughout the whole recording process, there's always time to fiddle with ideas that may arise on the spot.
When it comes to the mixing and the mastering of the record, we like to have a person outside of the band involved. When you're spending all these months making demos and recording the final tracks, it becomes less apparent which parts should stand out in the mix. For the last two albums, we worked together with producer Raf, who used to be the guitarist in Ancient Rites. So he definitely knows a thing or two on how to make a metal band sound good.
Lou: Which tracks from the album are you particularly proud of and why?
Jurgen: During the whole period that spans the writing, recording demos, rehearsing and recording the album, we've worked extremely hard on every piece of music on this album. There isn't any filler material on "Cult of Wuotan", so I'm essentially very proud of the album as a whole.
This said, there were a number of songs that required me to "get my chops up", to put it that way, so in that sense I definitely feel a sense of pride over songs such as "Terror Cimbricus" and "Harjaz".
Lou: Which tracks seem to be the most popular with your fans ("Thumelicus" has been played quite a few times on my CD player this week - there's just something about that lead guitar!)?
Jurgen: Yes, I get to hear that "Thumelicus" goes down very well with a lot of people. "Terror Cimbricus", "Ahnenkult" and "Harjaz" seem to be high up the favourites list as well.
Choosing favourite songs depends on a lot of different elements. Some like the interaction between clean, acoustic and distortion guitars on tracks such for instance as "Ahnenkult" a lot, others are really touched by the female vocals of guest vocalist Claudia on a track such as "Prophecies in Flames". Then there are those who pick their favourite song because of the lyrics that seem to appeal to them.
Lou: Do you have any plans to tour to promote this album and, most importantly, will you be coming to the UK? (it's always worth asking!)
Jurgen: No, we won't be touring to promote "Cult of Wuotan". Obviously we aren't in this band to make a living, so we have to make compromises between our daytime jobs that put bread on the table and one-off gigs.
Yet, fear not, we have been talking to a concert promoter about a gig in London next year, so who knows?
Lou: Are there any areas of the world that you would love to play in, but haven't been able to yet?
Jurgen: I'm pretty much open to play everywhere, from neighbouring countries to more exotic locations. Whenever we play in Belgium, the Netherlands or Germany, people are more or less equally supportive, so I'm somewhat curious on how our music would go down with metalheads in non-European territories such as for instance Turkey, Israel, Japan or North- and South-America.
Lou: Which is your favourite song to play live?
Jurgen: You might get a different answer should you ask me this question again next week, but right now I'd have to go with "Awakening of the Emperor", a track of our debut album "Treachery". Our live set consists mostly of songs of our second and third album, but this particular song feels really good in a live situation.
Lou: Have you made any videos to promote the album?
Jurgen: No, we'll record a video for "Silence Reigned over the Bog" next year. We were scheduled to shoot it last October, but with our lead guitarist Bastiaan being absent, these plans were delayed a tad.
The last video we recorded was one for the track "Uttergälden" of the "The Völsunga Saga" album, you can check it out on our website or MySpace.
Lou: The artwork for the album is awesome! Who created it?
Jurgen: The artwork of our last two albums was created by a genius called Kris Verwimp. Everybody probably owns multiple records with his artwork on the cover. Kris Verwimp painted album covers and t-shirt designs for a lot of famous (and less famous) bands out there; Marduk, Thryfing, Månegarm, Absu, ...the list is endless.
If you are not familiar with his work, you should head over to www.myspace.com/krisverwimp and check out his art.
Lou: In my mind you definitely fall into the sub-genre of "Pagan Metal". Is this how you would describe yourselves? If not, which terminology would you use?
Jurgen: We've come to use the description "Blackened Pagan Metal" to describe our music. Personally I regard the "pagan" header more as a lyrical or conceptual approach rather than a strict definition of a musical genre. A lot of people call us a "Viking metal" band, which I don't really agree with since we aren't Scandinavian nor focus on Norse-Germanic topics when it comes to lyrics. Others call it "Black Metal", mainly due to the vocal approach, but then again we use a lot of musical elements that are alien to the black metal style - and of course we don't have anything in common with the lyrical topics that are associated with the pure black metal movement such as Satanism, misanthropy, and so forth.
Lou: There seems to be quite a few bands going around under the Pagan Metal banner at the moment. What do you think seperates you from them? (because you definitely stand out)
Jurgen: A lot of people see "pagan metal" as being a mix between metal and what they believe to be music as it was performed in the Iron Age or early Middle Ages, id est folk music as it is interpreted today.
We stray from that approach; we feel that the general atmosphere of our music and lyrics is not served with folk influences but rather by elements borrowed from classical music from the Romantic age.
Lead guitarist Bastiaan and I share, besides metal music, an interest in classical music from that era and it just makes more sense to us to apply a "Wagnerian" approach to our music than to start fiddling with anachronistic folk parts.
Lou: Which elements of Pagan lore interest you the most, and which parts have found their way onto the album?
Jurgen: My interest in pre-Christian religion, culture and history is pretty much general. The lyrics of "Cult of Wuotan" focus mainly on a period spanning the Iron Age and the Early Middle Ages. On this album, the aim was to look for that particular point where myth and history meet.
Topics tackled on this album are the exploits of the tribe of the Cimbri, the death of Arminus' son Thumelicus, the warrior cult of the Harii, human sacrifices to the old gods and the role of the seeress Veleda in the Batavian uproar. We also dealt with more mythological, philosophical or religious subjects in songs such as "Ahnenkult", "Wuotanes Her", "The Fall of Rome", "Prophecies in Flames" and "Ergriffenheit".
It would lead us too far to discuss all these lyrics in detail but elaborate explanations about every subject are printed in the CD booklet anyway.
Lou: Which bands / musicians have proved to be the biggest influences on your sound and the way you play your instruments?
Jurgen: I guess everybody starts out by learning songs of established major metal bands. That was pretty much the beginning for me as well. As I grew older, other influences became more prominent, like for instance Bathory. The "Viking" Bathory albums and classic albums such as "Master Of Puppets" or "Rust in Piece" were major influences as far as the interaction between different moods goes; not to play 1000 miles an hour the whole time but to incorporate a lot of different musical elements throughout the course of a song or an album.
Lou: If you could tour with any other band in the world, who would it be?
Jurgen: A tour with bands such as Heidevolk and Wapenspraak & Drinkgelag would be excellent. We've played with both of these bands before, so we know that they consist of great people and they surely know how to put on a live show!
Lou: Do you have any other albums available? Where can we get them from?
Jurgen: Yes, we have. Before "Cult Of Wuotan", we released "The Völsunga Saga" (2006) and "Treachery" (2004). All of our albums are available straight from us (www.theudho.com), or from our current label (www.ureuropa.com) or the previous one (www.nepherex.com).
Lou: I've noticed that you've put a full bootleg up for free download on your website and MySpace. What made you decide to do this and has it helped you to find more fans?
Jurgen: Well, I actually don't understand why so few bands offer free stuff like this. I don't think it does anything for us as far as attracting a new audience; that's what our studio albums are for. We merely offer these things as a sign of gratitude and appreciation towards people who purchase our records and shirts, or those who come to see us perform live.
When you are in a situation that you are able to offer free concert downloads and such, it's not so much a "why bother" scenario, but rather the opposite. Why wouldn't we allow people to download a free concert now and then?
Also, as a teenager I spent a lot of time and effort on getting my hands on fuzzy live recordings of my favourite bands recorded on worn out tapes. I probably would have appreciated such download offers myself a lot in the old days. Clicking a download link sure is a lot more convenient than sending out an empty audio tape to another guy on the other side of the world and wait six weeks before it comes back...
Lou: Do you feel that the Internet is a help or a hinderance (or a bit of both!) when it comes to the music industry? What has your personal experience been with it?
Jurgen: Right, it's a bit of both. The Internet is a great tool when it comes to making promotion. A negative aspect surely is the illegal download of albums. I'm totally okay with people downloading our albums to check them out. It's nothing but common sense to listen to an album before forking out ten or fifteen euros of your hard earned money. On the other hand it's pretty outrageous that some jerks decide to make money by selling illegal MP3 versions of your album for 0,25 cents.
In an ideal world, we'd offer our music for free, yet unfortunately putting out an album costs a lot of money. Paying a studio, an artist to paint the cover art, pressing, distributing, ...nothing is for free, so it is normal that record companies expect some revenue.
As a compensation, we try to give people as much as we can when it comes to putting out a record; sixteen page full colour CD-booklets with lyrics, elaborate liner notes, photographs and illustrations on every single page shows that we care.
Lou: Vinyl vs CD vs MP3?
Jurgen: Call me nostalgic, but I really like old vinyl with big, beautiful covers. At the same time I am somewhat pragmatic, so I think it would be a smart move of record companies to offer free MP3-downloads with every physical copy purchased, be it on vinyl or compact disk format. It's a bit more convenient to upload a few albums in MP3-format to your MP3 player than to walk around with a bag with 50 albums in it, isn't it?
Lou: Small gig vs Festival?
Jurgen: Small clubs, big clubs, indoor and outdoor festivals: I like them all. There's a certain charm to each of these settings. Small gigs are nice because you really have the opportunity to get face to face with the crowd. Big gigs are fun because of the professional PA and lighting and the fact that you can walk around on stage without poking somebody's eye out with the headstock of your guitar, so to speak. Outdoor gigs are great too, playing outside in the cool, fresh evening air is a really special sensation.
Lou: What's next for Theudho?
Jurgen: Right now we're rehearsing for an upcoming concert with our countrymen Kludde (www.myspace.com/kludde, check them out) and we're negotiating some concert offers for next year as well. In order to keep it interesting for ourselves, we change the set list around all the time, add new songs or older songs we haven't played in a while and learn some new cover songs to throw in at the end of the set.
Next year will probably be the time to start discussing our aims for a fourth Theudho album, exchange some ideas and so forth.
Lou: Thanks again!
Jurgen: No, thank you!