GOTTHARD Bassist Discusses 'Domino Effect'

GOTTHARD bassist Marc Lynn recently spoke to Lucem Fero's Welsh interviewer Anthony Morgan. Topics of discussion included the Swiss group's second album "Domino Effect", their relationship with co-producer Ronald Prent (RAMMSTEIN),his thoughts on the music industry and how the group keep their material fresh. Several excerpts from the interview follow:

Lucem Fero: Could you tell me about how "Domino Effect" came about?

Marc Lynn: "The new album? Yeah, of course. 'Domino Effect' spawned in a really short time; we spent three months building it, writing it and recording it. It was completed rather quickly in the studios because the songwriting went so well — from the beginning it went pretty OK, and we had a great time recording. We've seen that the record gives a real energetic, fully loaded sound — yeah, here it is right now (laughs). We've already had initial reactions; we entered the German charts in 22nd place, and went straight to number one in Switzerland again."

Lucem Fero: Are you happy with the way the album turned out?

Marc Lynn: "Oh yeah, really happy. I think it's the right follow-up to 'Lipservice' — 'Lipservice' was already a great album, sounding especially clean and really powerful. Now we have even fresher songwriting, maybe even fresher than the big summer hit we had on 'Lipservice' which was 'Lift U Up'. With the song 'Lift U Up' maybe there's pieces missing, though we have more great songs on this album than we had on the last one."

Lucem Fero: Could you tell me about the album name?

Marc Lynn: "We chose the 'Domino Effect' name to be regarding something which always 'comes back.' The album title deals with the chain reaction — we go ahead making great albums and people love them. We've had a great response, so even the fans really love this album a lot. For us 'Domino Effect' just means staying behind in the studio to work at making great records, and at constantly 'coming back.' It's like rumours generally; somebody makes a comment, and then the whole world knows in one way or another about our album."

Lucem Fero: In what ways is the music business like a game of dominoes?

Marc Lynn: "Sometimes it is, yes. Just one concert at the right moment gives you headlines through the whole music scene, so then everybody is talking about you and everybody loves you also. Additionally, just one open air concert can really get the stone rolling so to speak; a little stone starts, and then at the end you have an earthquake. The music business is everything — it's wild, it's crazy, though now it's changed with the digital market, so we will see. Maybe we'll have a domino effect on the music business, because it's the same as the fashion industry — everything comes back."

Lucem Fero: Do you get tired of the music business sometimes?

Marc Lynn: "No, though I sometimes get tired of the industry. From a musician's point of view I don't get tired of the music business, but as a businessman I would get tired of it."

Lucem Fero: How do you feel about the industry then?

Marc Lynn: "I feel good, because they're trying their best. I think in these days though it's not only the industry, but it starts by your parents and then bypasses the industry to the politicians."

Lucem Fero: Do the politics annoy you then?

Marc Lynn: "Yeah, of course. They issue the laws for copying or against copying, and similar such things — they can never really decide quick enough though. We've seen that many people are losing their jobs because the music industry is shutting down due to the fact everybody is copying CDs. The young kids make bands in their own areas for the future, yet the politicians show no reaction."

Lucem Fero: Will the follow-up to "Domino Effect" be a continuation yet again?

Marc Lynn: "I hope so, though I really don't know (laughs). Right now it's important for us to live 'Domino Effect' and really to live it — the next step where we're going to travel to we'll see; I don't know, I can't say (laughs). Maybe we'll issue another live album like we did with 'Made in Switzerland', or we'll issue a second unplugged album, or maybe we'll bring out 'Domino Effect II', or even 'The Effect of Domino Effect'; I don't know (laughs)."

Lucem Fero: How do you keep it fresh?

Marc Lynn: "A good question. Maybe it's because we like to play with each other; we've been together now for maybe eighteen years, and this formation has never changed. Maybe it's just the fact we're playing with friends and having a good time."

Lucem Fero: How do you keep it different then though? The band's been around for so long, so how hard is it not write the same songs over and over?

Marc Lynn: "OK (laughs),a good question. Sometimes I'm asking myself the same. I think it's the will to do something new and to try to change, and not to have one riff and say, 'OK, that's the riff for the whole album.' We really research the music — sometimes we even sit down and say 'What we've never done for example is music with a basic groove or a basic loop,' or something like that. We then start to get the ideas of what groove we could jam with and how it could sound etc. It's really creative material which is really important, with even B-sides being deep. Freddy, the new guitar player who we've had since 'Lipservice', is also of course a new influence. He comes from the punk direction a little bit more, and we even have co-songwriters who are good friends of ours from Sweden who help us in writing great songs; on 'Lipservice' they wrote four songs together with us, and on this album there were just two songs. It's a great team, and I think if you have a great team and every time a slightly new aspect then that brings you new ideas."

Lucem Fero: Where would you like to take your career in the coming years?

Marc Lynn: "Right now with the new album we're trying to take a step forward, and then another step forward yet again with the next album. I think for us it's great to be greatly, greatly known superstars here in Switzerland — it's doing well but maybe too well. We're trying gain a position like we've achieved in Germany throughout the rest of Europe as a whole, where we can make huge, great shows with many people coming together. Sometimes even you can play headlining shows in the whole of Europe."

Lucem Fero: So you want to break the international market then?

Marc Lynn: "Yeah, of course."

Read the full interview at www.lucemfero.com.