Johannes Jüde

& Florian Winter

AM : Can you first tell us about the past years, how Sycronomica was born, and what have you done since the beginning in 1996 ?

Florian : Sycronomica was found in late 1996 by my cousin Chris (git.) and me. We were just about 14 years old..., started with covering songs from Samael, Katatonia, Satyricon and stuff, but then quickly began to write own songs. When chance came to play with acts like In Flames, Borknager or Tristania (after some recordings) Sycronomica became more and more serious. Band members quit with us so the next two years we almost had to close down 'cause We weren't able to get a fitting replacement. .
Johannes : For example Sycronomica had to use a drum computer... awful!!! hahaha
Florian : Yes, indeed! Since then many band members have changed and not till 2000 we found a steady line up. But then we got a very talented drummer at last (Michael) and a tough frontman at the vocals (Olli). After our first cd release "Paths" we picked up a second guitarist (Jo) and got again the chance to play at many festivals and concerts. Finally in this year we recorded our second one "Gate" and for this time we've been with Armageddon Music.

AM : The German black metal underground is very busy but few bands manage or want to go out from this underground. How did you manage to achieve it, and was it your goal when you started?

Johannes : After some years of existence Sycronomica decided to try to achieve more than a garage band status. So in 2003 we went into the well-known Hellion Studios and financed the recordings of our first full length album "Paths" on our own. "Paths" which was released in 2004 through Black Attakk is a kind of best of from stuff that was written between 1997 and 2003. And then things developed further….
Florian : Yeah, from this moment we got up more and more - and I think due to this recording. So it could be said that "Paths" is our path from below to where we're now.

AM : How did you get this deal with Armageddon Music?

Johannes : Our vocalist Olli met Sabina Classen - the singer of Holy Moses and Armageddon’s A&R - on a concert. They had a good conversation and Sabina left with our Paths album. She liked it very much and flew for one of our concerts to Munich. So we got finally signed.

AM : Let’s talk about « Gate » now. This is a complex album with long, epic songs. Who is composing the music?

Johannes : Our main songwriter is Flo - the keyboarder - who also studies music on a music academy or conservatory. Some riffs are also brought into the band by our guitarists Chris and me.
Florian : Sometimes I write a whole song but normally I take some ideas and riffs to the band rehearsals and we arrange the song together change some ideas attach something and so on… We like this way of working, because we feel than that we create something together. And 6 guys have more ideas than just one.
Johannes : But it´s also getting to us, because we have sometimes long discussions how to arrange the songs…haha

AM : I’ve described your metal is black metal, with symphonic and progressive touches, some kind of missing link between ‘true black’, mainstream black as Dimmu Borgir and prog black as Borknagar. Do you agree? How would you describe it?

Johannes : Yeah, I like this description. Borknagar and Dimmu Borgir are both great bands! But besides, our prog and symphonic elements you find also some pagan black metal influences, which make our sound kind of epic, I think.
Florian : As we are all very into music and have a big musical background it´s not easy to say where the influences exactly come from. The symphonic part is mainly put down to my classical studies I think. The death metal part often comes due to the death metal history of our vocalist Olli, and so on. There are many touches, all united in Sycronomica's music...

AM : Is Sycronomica a satanist band? How are your feelings about satanic bands?

Johannes : Sycronomica neither care about religions nor about politics and want to dissociate from any extremists! We do not need any ideology to get our music promoted! If a band is satanic I think it is very often just because they hope to improve their sales. If they really believe this it is Ok, everybody can believe in what he or she chooses to. But we do not need any religion.
Florian : So we just want our music to be what it is, to refer only on itself. Our music is our message!

AM : The artwork of the cd is really nice, who did this one?

Johannes : Our drummer Michi is a real artist. He painted it and also made the whole booklet and designs all the artwork that is related to Sycronomica from our logo to the shirts! He also designed our first album and has made artwork for some other bands e.g. Festering saliva.

AM : What are the bands that you admire and consider as models for Sycronomica? What is the best black metal album you’ve listened to this year (Don’t tell me “Gate”, we know that ;) )

Florian : We are six band members and everybody would tell you different bands he prefers to listen to. Our taste in music is very different.
Johannes : And we also don’t have real models for our music! We write what we want to. But there are some bands that are liked by most of us very much and gave us also some inspirations e.g. Katatonia, Borknagar, Arcturus, Dimmu Borgir, Emperor and old Cradle stuff if you want to get some names.
The best black metal album besides “Gate” this year? – hard to answer hahaha... I like the current Dark Fortress cd “Séance” very much, also “Now Diabolical” from Satyricon is great! A cd which is at the moment much rotating in my cd player is the new Necrophobic record “Hrimthursum”. It’s a mixture of death and black metal and really good!

AM : What do you plan now, new album, gigs … ?

Johannes : Yeah, we already started with the song writing for the next album and I think we will develop further! But at the moment our focus is more fixed on performing as much as possible. Besides, some other gigs, we will join “Die Apokalyptischen Reiter” on some concerts of their “Riders on the Storm Tour 2006” in Germany, Italy and Austria.
Florian : But next year we have great touring plans, but nothing is fixed yet and that's why we don't want to give you a name because this would destroy the magic and the thing doesn't happen...
Johannes : Of course there are also some festivals appearances on our schedule for next year. Famous Ragnarök Festival in spring 2007 is already fixed, yet.

AM : Thanks for your time & all the best for the release of « Gate » !

Johannes : Thank you for the interest in Sycronomica and for this interview. We appreciated the questions!!!! Check out our homepages:
www.Sycronomica.de, www.myspace.com/sycronomica
Florian : We hope to play soon some gigs in France. Perhaps we'll meet then...