The good friendly violent fun of Sudden Death

interview with Markus on 2-12-2001

Please give us a short introduction of yourself?
Hi! I’m Markus, 31 years old, two children and I play bass in SUDDEN DEATH! My profession is to teach and to work with mentally and physically handicapped people. I’ve done some kind of steel work before and truck driving as well. My first band was DETERRENT, a German Jazz Thrash outfit. Really strange stuff, but it stopped after 13 years of stressing everybody. But that couldn’t stop me from bothering anybody! I formed a new outfit in 1996 named BRETT PIT which is playing strange thrash metal as well (check out WWW.BRETTPIT.COM) ! We’ve got one CD out till now with that band as well.

What does Sudden Death stand for?
We represent brutality and heaviness including lots of fun. We’re doing our own kind of Old School Death Metal thing without using any boring image stuff. We’re just what we are and we don’t have to produce ourselves with some strange cloth or window color all over our bodies.

Do you want to spread something with the band?
Yes – maybe . . .! What about this GOOD FRIENDLY VIOLENT FUN which EXODUS used already in the 80s. If we have to spread something, than we’ll jump on that train. If you’re asking about the lyrics, they deal with all kind of things, but no sexism, racism, Satanism or any extremism at all!

How do you want people to judge the band?
As a Death Metal Band which left some cliches behind. We don’t wear black Spandex all the time and no metal belts as well. They just have to judge us for our music and our live performance. And to those people who think, that ain’t heavy enough: Sorry, but that’s how we do it!

You are from 1991. Why still release the albums by yourself?
Because it’s the best way to do it! People can buy the CDs for small money from us and the money they spend, goes directly back into the band without some stupid asshole taking the most of it. I think that it’s unfair, to take nearly 20% for a CD which is around 0,6% in the real production. To many people try to make money out of the music from the bands. MUSIC IS FOR YOU AND ME, NOT FOR THE FUCKING INDUSTRY! But that’s how it is. Just big business and we don’t want to be a part of it at the moment!

Never had any interest from labels? Which one?
There were some interests and we’ve tried a distribution deal already three years ago, but that messed us up. If you sign yourself to a label, it’s like you sign you life over. You don’t sell the rights for one CD or LP, also for the Video, DVD, Multi Media things and whatever. But the label just wants to do one album. And it gets the options to do everything else, without giving any guarantee. Exclusive rights for nothing! And the other bad thing is, that you have to go into the studio or on tour, when the management wants that! Sounds a bit like slavery to me.

Is it hard to finance the releases?
Sometimes it is and you have to pay from your own pocket, but for the next CD the money is already in. We don’t earn money from the band – everything we get will be hold to do new shirts, CDs or whatever.

How is it to support the well known bands?
Most of the shows we play are with other underground bands. We already played with some signed bands like with Krisiun or Exhumed. And most times it’s really fun. If you play as a nearly unknown band to support someone else known, you can’t loose anything. You just enter the stage, even without soundcheck or whatever and you kick major butt! That’s how we do it.

Do you feel you are treated seriously by them? Rockstar attitudes?
Most of the times the other bands are just people like you and me. Some have these attitudes, but even if you think you’re a Rockstar, you’re already out of the game. Alex from Krisiun came over to me after our show together and he bought our CD. He said :“That was real DEATH METAL!“ We had a really good time with them. And we still talk to them when they are out in Europe and we visit their shows. Same goes for Exhumed! Really nice guys which: “Still give no fucking thanx!“ Ha, ha!

What is your goal with life performances?
For us personal it’s just to have as much fun as possible. We just want to ROCK! You have to see us, to understand what I mean. Check out our homepage to see some pictures or to get our dates.

What are the reactions to ’Unnatural Human Art’? How many sold?
They were really good. The metal heads liked the digi pack and the music as well. Some people were nagging about that the lyrics are just in the multi media presentation, but that were the only critics we get. I’m not sure about the sale now, but I think we’ve sold around 1000 copies till now.

Do you get reaction from outside Germany?
Yes! We’ve got mail from all over the world: Japan, Malaysia, Chile, USA, Canada, Belgium, Poland, Switzerland, Italy and many other countries. You’re from the Netherlands, aren’t you? We also traded and sold our CDs worldwide and we’ve played shows in Poland (we’ll go there again at the end of November), Switzerland, Holland and Belgium.

What influences you to do the bass? Any other instrument?
It was Cliff Burton when I was fifteen! He was a real killer on the four strings and I loved his energy and power! Another thing was: I’ve got five fingers and my first bass had four strings so I always had the advantage of one more. So it was easy to win. Now I mostly play five strings and that makes it difficult . . . .! I started with the piano when I was eight years old, but I quit after two years.

Which art does impress you? Collect some?
I prefer music at first, but I really like Comic Art. The elder Spider Man drawings of Todd Mc Farlane or Dale Keowns PITT are amazing. I used to collect several comic series and some statues as well, but I don’t have the time now for that, so I stopped buying new stuff in that direction.

What more does attract you?
What really attracts me nowadays is my 5 month old son Joel. There’s nothing better than watching this small wonder making his move here on earth. He really inspires me and he gives me hope for my future and for the future of the world as well. When you see, what this small guy learns and how he behaves, you start to believe in men again. There’s nothing BAD in any innocent child which is born into this world and that makes me believe, that the world we live in is not lost now and that it is worth to look forward!

Explain ’Haarmanns Revenge’?
I can't say anything about this title. It was before my time in SUDDEN DEATH. In fact, it was the title of a demo tape we released in the beginning, but in that time, it was a band just for getting drunk and stuff - nothing serious. It's a stupid title for me, when I look at it. We don't support any slayers or serial killers and we don't think they should be supported by anyone.

Are the titles/lyrics important? Or is the music the top topic?
Let’s say it this way : The lyrics are important to us because the words can give even more meaning to a song. Our singer is writing about anything which touches him. This can come from horror themes over social critic stuff right up to personal things. And most times they are written with a twinkle in the eye which may make you think about what we’re talking about. So you can see that we are kind of serious about what we say without stepping into any situation of extremism. We are no Satanists, nihilists or whatever. We take care of what is going on and we take our responsibility as well.

What bands do you listen to yourself?
I really prefer underground metal bands like EMBEDDED, PROFANITY, REQUIEM (CH), SANITYS DAWN, UNDERCROFT, PULVERIZER, DORMITORY and stuff like that, because they are not touched or produced by the industry till now. But I also like CANNIBAL CORPSE, BOLT THROWER, PRIMUS, VOI VOD, EXODUS, NUCLEAR ASSAULT, TESTAMENT, THE HAUNTED, D.R.I., BRUTAL TRUTH, STRAPPING YOUNG LAD and KING‘S X.

Say something shocking to the readers?
In some way I’m a Christian! That doesn’t mean that I believe in the holy church, but I believe in God. I also listen to some classical music, jazz stuff and I’m a real STING fan. Is this enough for now?

Last rites?
Yes Twan! Thank you for doing this interview and thanx to the readers for paying attention to my words. If you’re having the possibility, come over to our shows or try to get a small view at us on our home page www.suddendeath.de ! If you want, feel free to contact me under webmaster@suddendeath.de ! Anybody interested in booking a good live band for a metal party or a gig anyway – do it the same way! Cheers!