Interview with MEM V.STEIN (Exumer) – 19 February 2014

March 10th, 2014 by Yiannis

As I assume many of you are already well aware, not every band that played good quality Thrash Metal back in the 80s managed to make a career in the music business and the German quartet Exumer is a perfect example of that. Following the release of two cult classics in the shape of “Possesses By Fire” (1986) and “Rising From The Sea” (1978), internal friction and luck of support by labels led to the band’s break up. Having made an impressive return in 2012 with the release of “Fire & Damnation”, the lads are currently on tour with ex-Skyclad frontman Martin Walkiyer and it was during their scheduled performance at the O2 Islington Academy in London that I caught up with singer Mem V.Stein in order to discuss the reasons that led to the band’s re-formation, their current activities as well as their plans towards releasing studio album number four next year.

By Yiannis (John) Stefanis.

Hi, Mem. It’s such a great pleasure to do this interview with you, as I am a massive fan of German Thrash Metal and especially of those bands which were not lucky enough to enjoy the exposure that Sodom, Kreator and Destruction did back in the day. To have you guys back & releasing new music is a real gift to an old schooler such as myself.

Mem: Great, thank you for talking to me.

Back in the 80s, you released two extremely good albums, one of which you just signed for me (note “Possessed By Fire”) and then in the beginning of the 90s the band broke up. Why? What forced such a good band to call it a day so early in its career?

Mem: Do you want the real story or the other one (laughs)?

The one you wish the public to know!

Mem: Actually, what happened is that the band went through various line-up changes and every time you change, like, singers that brings a different kind of energy into the fold but it also takes a little bit of energy out of the original concept that you were set out to do. So, in combination with that, with all the people coming and going, it was also a general time of changes taking place. By that stage, Thrash was actually on its way out. The band broke up around the time when Nirvana and all the other like-minded bands were getting bigger. So, I think that the most…the most pertinent contributing factor was that there were a lot of line-up changes. I mean, the band had created two classic records but was not really able to recreate those two records with the final line-up it had as people were already heading in different musical directions. Then, you know, we just basically ran out of ideas, on how to continue with that line-up and so things kind of dissolved from there. Ray (note: Mensh: guitar), myself and Bernie (note: Siedler: guitar), a couple of years later, we started playing in another band together so we never really lost touch with each other and I also did something in the 90s which was completely different to Thrash.

Exumer’s return was at a time when Thrash started becoming popular again, the period of the New Wave of Thrash Metal as certain people chose to describe it. This was spearheaded by a group of young musicians who were not lucky enough to be around at the time when Thrash was at its height and who loved this kind of music enough to form bands and found labels who were willing to support them in their quest. Do you feel that Exumer have directly benefited by this resurgence?

Mem: Sure! It’s not, however, as a result of that resurgence that we’re back here; it was a question of whether we wanted to do this again or not and we simply decided to put the band back together. The fact, however, that this style of music became popular again definitely helped us and all these young people that you mentioned, well, many of them kind of drew inspiration from bands like ours as well as directly from Exumer too. I believe that it is a mutually beneficial relationship as we came back at the same time that movement was getting strong but the decision to reform the band did not hinge upon that resurgence. That had nothing to do with it. We played in Los Angeles in 2009 and we had no idea how big that thing was because they booked us to headline this festival. I was constantly going back and forward to the promoter saying: “Listen, you’re putting out a lot of money here – are you sure you want to do this?” to which he replied: “Yes, no problem”. All I heard was “no problem” (laughs). I mean, these were nice people and I didn’t want them to lose any money. Then we got there and it was fu*king…enormous! We never anticipated it! So yeah, we definitely benefited from the fact that there are young bands out there that are kind of popular playing Thrash but they also give us a lot of love too, those bands, and then, in return, the fans also completely love us. We just went to South America last year and it was fu*king amazing! The reception we got was crazy – like when we were kids! We would go and play and two, three, four hundred people would show out of nowhere, you know? It’s the same thing now, not everywhere we play, of course. Last night we playing in Moscow and we had a really nice crowd, there with people forming circle pits and going nuts in mosh pits. Not many of these dudes were forty five and up – these were like young kids who grew up listening to the New Wave of Thrash Metal but also listening to us.

What do you think it is about Exumer that kind of captures the imagination of people? I am sure that many people in the audience tonight will be fairly young and they are the ones who actively support the scene by coming to the shows and buying the t-shirts. What is it that attracts those kids to Exumer?

Mem: I believe that there are a couple of things, beginning with the fact that we originally released only two records. In the beginning of this interview you mentioned the fact that we were never really huge so that right there, a band with two records in the 80s which never really became huge but which people respected is interesting enough. We were also never really a funny band. We played a darker kind of Thrash Metal which also made us stand out. We played at the Inferno Festival in 2010 and we went there again not knowing why these guys really booked us in a fu*king festival with a bunch of Black Metal and Death Metal bands which clearly, clearly did not sound anything like us! At the time we did not have the Metal Blade record (note “Fire & Damnation”) out either, so we went with, I think, one or two new songs and our old material. We got there, we checked into the hotel with all the other bands as we were all staying in that same place and also with all the fans which was nice. People, as expected, started partying and a few were saying: “Wow, Exumer are here” and starting saying things to us like: “We grew up listening to you guys, looking at the fire on your covers” and that’s when everything started making sense to us. They didn’t know us, they never saw us and all they had were these records to go by and so they created their own…

…mythology of the band?

Mem: Yeah! They created their own sort of illusion as per what this band is all about. I understand that as we did the same when we were kids. I would listen to bands like Bathory or something and will be like: “Wow, what is this guy doing”? Bands like Mercyful Fate had a similar effect on me. I eventually met those people but, you know, in 1982 I didn’t! It was the same thing with us. We finally played at the Inferno Festival and people went fu*king crazy, reason being that half is the result of that myth and half is the fact that, you know, whenever there’s a cult band around you’d rather check on that. You can go and buy a record from Sodom, Kreator & Destruction any day you want but you could not do that with us – now you can, as we rereleased our music, but until 2012 you couldn’t! It really has an appeal. If I were a fan at the age of sixteen I would do the same thing as I did that back in the day. I was going out and I was listening to such music, trying to get my hands on demos and stuff. In a weird way we did belong at the Inferno festival, maybe because we were not wearing fu|*king Hawaiian shorts (note: references to Anthrax perhaps) when we were playing our music. So, in the fans’ minds what we were playing was Black/Thrash and it worked really well.

Is tonight another addition to the interesting collection of gigs that you have performed of late? I mean, you really stick out in comparison with the remaining bands on tonight’s bill.

Mem: What we are able to do is that we can easily convince people who come to see us live that we are really not a throwback. We are not a bunch of old dudes who are going through the motions when playing. We are a fu*king aggressive band! You can put us together with new Thrash bands today and we have no problem playing with them and that’s because we don’t act like we’re…the only reason why we do this band is to be able to kill! In whatever capacity that may be it doesn’t matter; whether it is on a Black Metal festival or anywhere else. When people come to see us they always leave saying “oh God, these guys are fu*king crazy” and that’s what we want. That I believe is the reason why our band is so sought after as well as the fact that we do not play a million shows. We don’t go on tours that last six months. This tour now includes four shows but if you look at the itinerary they are an interesting four shows, you know what I mean? In Blastfest we are playing with some of the biggest bands in Europe, you know what I mean? What we try to do is to always focus on quality instead of quantity. I mean, we could go on a six month tour but is we play the same place three times over nobody will come to see us and that’s when it stops being special. I mean, look at you: you’re excited to see us!

I am officially a sixteen year old kid again today!

Mem: (laughs). You see, that’s the thing. We are trying to keep that alive by being smart about the shows that we choose to play and also about how we release records. Our record company wanted us to have a new record out this year but we said: “We’re going to come up with a new record next year”. We don’t want to be in that eighteen month, twenty four month cycle record-tour-record-tour, you know? If we can avoid it we will. I mean, we don’t want to be without a label but they were fine with what we said. Our last album sold fine so they said: “Alright, whatever you need to do”.

Surely, that is a great place to be, right? Most bands need to be constantly touring these days to remain of interest. If you’ve already had a discussion with yourselves and decided that you do not wish to have a high maintenance career out of Exumer and still you have a high profile label like Metal Blade supporting you on that then you are quite OK, right?

Mem: For us yes. I mean. We’re on Metal Blade and we have our record released all over the world and they do things to enable people to listen to that record – it’s not that they release the record and then they drop the whole effort. Again, though, Exumer is a brand which works really well the way it does, the way we have it set up. I think that things would have not work as well if we were to start shifting around…look: what we do outside of the band is nobody’s business but we’re not reliant on making money from our music. At the same time, when we do things with this band we give 100% – we are really professional about things. We are not a bunch of washed up guys doing washed up things. We don’t want to do that. It’s always 100% Exumer. You see us: we travel all over the world and so you have to be a professional band to be able to pull this off – you can’t just be some dipsh*t off the street.

Message noted & point taken. With that in mind, what is the current plan that you have with regards the future of the band?

Mem: Well, this year we will be writing our next record. We already started getting stuff together and we are really going to focus on that, perhaps playing two or three more shows after this tour is over. Then we’re going to write and record the album so it’s ready for release next spring. It was spring 2012 that we released “Fire & Damnation” and it is in 2015 that we will release our next record. That’s what’s in the books for the band at this moment and I think that, as far as plans go, it’s a good one. All our fans want us to come up with new material but I keep on telling everybody that quality beats quantity and I really believe that the only reason why we were accepted back with the release of “Fire & Damnation” is because people felt that it was an honest record. It was not just a bunch of dudes trying to make up some quick money – it’s just not that. Anybody who knows the music industry these days knows that it’s really difficult to hassle anyway. So, when we entered the relationship with Metal Blade we told them

that they could not put us through the machine that they do with most bands. In some aspects perhaps they can; they can release the fancy digipacks and the fu*king whatevernot and I will do a thousand interviews – I don’t mind. In some other aspects, however, they realise that they need to give us some room. We had something set up to go on the road with Onslaught but then the booking agency didn’t come through the way we wanted them to and we said “no, we’re not doing it”. That tells you that we’re not after the money because we could have easily said: “Man, let’s go and do it and see what happens as we need the money” – well, no, we don’t! We knew that if these guys are not willing to accept our conditions and come through with us the end result is going to be sh*t for the fans and, ultimately, without them we simply cannot do any of this. If people have a bad experience they will not buy our records and that means that we will not be able to go on tour, you know what I mean? Everything’s got to be correct – you cannot do things incorrectly. Now, we’re here in the UK for two nights so things are out of our control. We simply get our money and we put on our show – whatever happens around these shows we cannot control. Now, on a six week tour or a five week tour you best believe that we will have control over what is happening.

Mem, I am happy to hear you say those things as it makes the whole experience more real for me and people who support Exumer these days. What is it that motivates you these days to write and perform music? As you said, there was no inspiration for you guys at the end of the 80s – what’s different about this period that got you writing music again?

Mem: Well, I think…hmm…personally I have been through a musical journey of being part of many different bands, playing different kinds of music and in the 00’s I came full circle and I started playing Thrash Metal again in New York. I had my own band but I decided to dissolve that and I called Ray and said: “Let’s just do this again” to which he replied: “Let’s go”. I think that because of my personal musical journey I came to the point where I started noticing the love that I had for this kind of music. It’s the one thing, the one music genre that I really, really like and I knew that because we only did two records we never really finished with what we had to say as a band. I mean, two records is nothing! It’s more like the beginning – like warming up, right? So, when we approached the last record we said: “Ok, we’re not going to re-invent Thrash Metal and we’re not going to re-invent Exumer. What we’re going to do is simply write the third Exumer record just as we would have done in succession. It’s going to sound different that the other 80s releases but the spirit of our spirit back then we are still going to capture”. It was actually not that difficult to do because we are inspired by the energy of what we know took place back then. It’s great and we love the reception we received from everybody.

Mem, I believe that our last words have wrapped things up perfectly, plus, I realise that you have to go and do your sound check. It’s been a pleasure meeting you – I hope you enjoy tonight’s show.

Mem: Thanks man. See you out there.

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