There's not much to say about this band, since everyone knowns the one and only Caliban!
I got some time from the guitarist Marc, to do this with me.
Merry Christmas to all of you!
Here's there newest video
Caliban - Memorial
Here's my interview with Marc Görtz from Caliban!
How does it feel to be in such a famous and well known band, having fans all around the planet and being founder of a new era of metal?
I don't know really, we don't think about this… and it's also for other people to judge if it even is that way! But what i can say is, that we live a dream to be able to go around the world and play our music, which actually only our fans made possible!!!
How did the name "Caliban" came up?
There are some things to find around the web, but what does the band say to this point?
It is a character from Shakespeare, it's a demon who cant decide between good and evil and we thought it matches pretty well for the music, since we also didn't wanted to have a word you can translate… we wanted a "name"….
it fits, because we also play with opposites, fast-slow, melodic-heavy- clean vox-screams etc….
What do you think about stereotype thinking, such as "this band is Metalcore, this band is Deathcore and so on..."?
I don't care really for genres, i just care if i like the band or not! I also couldn't say if we are Hardcore, Metal, New Era Metal, Metalcore… or whatever…
To that point, would you put Caliban into a single genre?
I think i answered the Question above .
How do guys describe your own sound?
Hard to say, i think we have many influences! But to reduce it to the main musical elements, i would say, mostly Metal, with some Hardcore and Post-Hardcore influences...
Do you also listen to your own music?
Do you mean, the style of music or actually us? If you mean us, i listen usually a lot to it during the writing and recording process, to improve them as much as possible… and after the mixing too for some days, but after that i put it to rest a bit for me, that i'm not over the songs when we start playing them live hehe.
What is the favorite band release so far?
Say Hello To Tragedy and Shadow Hearts, but soon by far I Am Nemesis!!!
Which songs are your favorite to play live?
"I will never let you down"
Also, are there songs you don't like yourselves?
Do you mean songs we play live i don't like?
Not really, but in general i like better songs to play live where i don't have to focus so crazy much on playing it really accurate… like the song above, it's pretty easy and i can move/run around better, if you know what i mean… but the songs we play live i like all!
What do you guys think about fans, that cover your songs on guitar, drums, vocals, etc?
I actually love it! First it's really interesting to see how people play it and second it makes me really happy/proud that there are people who put a lot of effort into our music to learn and practice it! Thats awesome!
What do you guys do beside the band? Do you work/study?
No, we are a full-time band! There would be not enough time to work, specially during the writing process of an album… the new album took for example around 10 month to finish!
What are the bands and the members interests/hobbies?
Well i cant talk about all hobbies of the other members because i simply don't know all of them, but Marcos hobby is pretty much star wars . Denis is a movie fan.
Andy is crazy for TV shows and he reads a lot of books, but seriously i don't know how he can watch some of them and don't get me wrong i like some shows too Patrick likes to try new restaurants!
what kind of activity they like, i don't know so much, because for example Andy and Patrick live pretty far away… i like snowboarding, cooking, going to the movies with friends, Ps3, reading books…..
What kind of music or which artists are your personal favorites?
I don't have one single fav band, i can name a few, because i listen to different types of music, not only to heavy stuff…i like In Flames, Muse, The Acacia Strain, Bury Your Dead, Dredg for example...
Do you guys care about your fans, because you have such a big fanbase and it must be hard to take time for them all?
Of course, we care actually a lot! without them we wouldn't even be able to write the music we do! At least not the same way! We always try to answer mails and questions, of course we cant answer all, but we try our best! So at this point, thanks for all your support! be assured it means the world to us!
Which bands would you recommend to you fans, listening to?
Well, thats a hard question, basically it's always good to listen to outstanding bands, which do what nobody else does, for example Muse, this singer/guitarplayer is a genius to me! This kind of tones he creates etc…
How many members have been in other bands before? Could you name them too?
Denis has played in Aclys and Marco and Patrick in Six Reasons To Kill… Andy and me didn't have another band before, the band had just another name in the past when we started as a school band… i just had 2 sideprojects in the meanwhile..
Do you also took ideas from these bands into Caliban or did they influenced Calibans sound?
I cant really tell, not really i guess, specially not for the "Say Hello To Tragedy" and "I Am Nemesis" just like i mentioned above, the Muse guitarplayer inspired me to create some unique sounds for the new album, but not actual the band itself…
of course in some way you are always influenced by stuff you listening too, can be even uncountions
Actually you guys revealed the cover artwork, the Tracklist and the title of your new album "I Am Nemesis". Can we expect a new sound from you guys?
Yes, like i said above, i tried to create new sounds for the new album and tried to add new influences to the music without changing our style really and i think it turned out amazing, i'm really proud of it!
How does it came, that you have Marcus Bischoff and Mitch Lucker as guest vocalists on one track?
The lyrics were actually asking for guestvocals at this song and we thought about who we could ask… and then the idea came in my mind to ask our fans what they also would like! The top 2 were obviously Marcus and Mitch, we are friends with both bands, so we wrote them a mail! And it turned out they fit perfect for the song!
Would you guys do another EP such as Coverfield and let fans decide which songs you will cover?
Actually on the Bonus CD of our new album are a couple more coverings… in total 8 tracks! I don't think that we will record another cover CD so soon….
Have you guys ever thought of going into hiatus?
Sorry, what?? haha…..no idea what that means….
What was your guys favorite venue and tour so far?
I liked the chain reaction club in Anaheim California a lot, but there has been many many great places we played, i couldn't mention all of them.. this one i said, i just remember because it was a really crazy intense show and maybe the hottest we ever played, Denis even passed out behind the stage shah… but that has been some years ago! For tours it's also hard to say, we had lots of fun with many bands, so it would be also kinda not fair to mention just one and i couldn't even actually…
but the tour which helped us a lot in our career was the machine head tour like 6 years ago! 7 weeks long and all were huge!
What bands would you like to tour with? How would your favorite tour would look like?
We played with so many bands already, so many we wanted to play with, we already did for example "in flames" "machine head" …. if you mean it this way.
otherwise i think we have a really cool lineup for our upcoming tour in February!
Any messages to your friends, families or fans left?
I hope everybody is gonna check out our upcoming album "I am nemesis" we are gonna release actually 3 different versions, including a very nice collectors box!
and thanks to all our fans for your undying support!!!
I don't know really, we don't think about this… and it's also for other people to judge if it even is that way! But what i can say is, that we live a dream to be able to go around the world and play our music, which actually only our fans made possible!!!
How did the name "Caliban" came up?
There are some things to find around the web, but what does the band say to this point?
It is a character from Shakespeare, it's a demon who cant decide between good and evil and we thought it matches pretty well for the music, since we also didn't wanted to have a word you can translate… we wanted a "name"….
it fits, because we also play with opposites, fast-slow, melodic-heavy- clean vox-screams etc….
What do you think about stereotype thinking, such as "this band is Metalcore, this band is Deathcore and so on..."?
I don't care really for genres, i just care if i like the band or not! I also couldn't say if we are Hardcore, Metal, New Era Metal, Metalcore… or whatever…
To that point, would you put Caliban into a single genre?
I think i answered the Question above .
How do guys describe your own sound?
Hard to say, i think we have many influences! But to reduce it to the main musical elements, i would say, mostly Metal, with some Hardcore and Post-Hardcore influences...
Do you also listen to your own music?
Do you mean, the style of music or actually us? If you mean us, i listen usually a lot to it during the writing and recording process, to improve them as much as possible… and after the mixing too for some days, but after that i put it to rest a bit for me, that i'm not over the songs when we start playing them live hehe.
What is the favorite band release so far?
Say Hello To Tragedy and Shadow Hearts, but soon by far I Am Nemesis!!!
Which songs are your favorite to play live?
"I will never let you down"
Also, are there songs you don't like yourselves?
Do you mean songs we play live i don't like?
Not really, but in general i like better songs to play live where i don't have to focus so crazy much on playing it really accurate… like the song above, it's pretty easy and i can move/run around better, if you know what i mean… but the songs we play live i like all!
What do you guys think about fans, that cover your songs on guitar, drums, vocals, etc?
I actually love it! First it's really interesting to see how people play it and second it makes me really happy/proud that there are people who put a lot of effort into our music to learn and practice it! Thats awesome!
What do you guys do beside the band? Do you work/study?
No, we are a full-time band! There would be not enough time to work, specially during the writing process of an album… the new album took for example around 10 month to finish!
What are the bands and the members interests/hobbies?
Well i cant talk about all hobbies of the other members because i simply don't know all of them, but Marcos hobby is pretty much star wars . Denis is a movie fan.
Andy is crazy for TV shows and he reads a lot of books, but seriously i don't know how he can watch some of them and don't get me wrong i like some shows too Patrick likes to try new restaurants!
what kind of activity they like, i don't know so much, because for example Andy and Patrick live pretty far away… i like snowboarding, cooking, going to the movies with friends, Ps3, reading books…..
What kind of music or which artists are your personal favorites?
I don't have one single fav band, i can name a few, because i listen to different types of music, not only to heavy stuff…i like In Flames, Muse, The Acacia Strain, Bury Your Dead, Dredg for example...
Do you guys care about your fans, because you have such a big fanbase and it must be hard to take time for them all?
Of course, we care actually a lot! without them we wouldn't even be able to write the music we do! At least not the same way! We always try to answer mails and questions, of course we cant answer all, but we try our best! So at this point, thanks for all your support! be assured it means the world to us!
Which bands would you recommend to you fans, listening to?
Well, thats a hard question, basically it's always good to listen to outstanding bands, which do what nobody else does, for example Muse, this singer/guitarplayer is a genius to me! This kind of tones he creates etc…
How many members have been in other bands before? Could you name them too?
Denis has played in Aclys and Marco and Patrick in Six Reasons To Kill… Andy and me didn't have another band before, the band had just another name in the past when we started as a school band… i just had 2 sideprojects in the meanwhile..
Do you also took ideas from these bands into Caliban or did they influenced Calibans sound?
I cant really tell, not really i guess, specially not for the "Say Hello To Tragedy" and "I Am Nemesis" just like i mentioned above, the Muse guitarplayer inspired me to create some unique sounds for the new album, but not actual the band itself…
of course in some way you are always influenced by stuff you listening too, can be even uncountions
Actually you guys revealed the cover artwork, the Tracklist and the title of your new album "I Am Nemesis". Can we expect a new sound from you guys?
Yes, like i said above, i tried to create new sounds for the new album and tried to add new influences to the music without changing our style really and i think it turned out amazing, i'm really proud of it!
How does it came, that you have Marcus Bischoff and Mitch Lucker as guest vocalists on one track?
The lyrics were actually asking for guestvocals at this song and we thought about who we could ask… and then the idea came in my mind to ask our fans what they also would like! The top 2 were obviously Marcus and Mitch, we are friends with both bands, so we wrote them a mail! And it turned out they fit perfect for the song!
Would you guys do another EP such as Coverfield and let fans decide which songs you will cover?
Actually on the Bonus CD of our new album are a couple more coverings… in total 8 tracks! I don't think that we will record another cover CD so soon….
Have you guys ever thought of going into hiatus?
Sorry, what?? haha…..no idea what that means….
What was your guys favorite venue and tour so far?
I liked the chain reaction club in Anaheim California a lot, but there has been many many great places we played, i couldn't mention all of them.. this one i said, i just remember because it was a really crazy intense show and maybe the hottest we ever played, Denis even passed out behind the stage shah… but that has been some years ago! For tours it's also hard to say, we had lots of fun with many bands, so it would be also kinda not fair to mention just one and i couldn't even actually…
but the tour which helped us a lot in our career was the machine head tour like 6 years ago! 7 weeks long and all were huge!
What bands would you like to tour with? How would your favorite tour would look like?
We played with so many bands already, so many we wanted to play with, we already did for example "in flames" "machine head" …. if you mean it this way.
otherwise i think we have a really cool lineup for our upcoming tour in February!
Any messages to your friends, families or fans left?
I hope everybody is gonna check out our upcoming album "I am nemesis" we are gonna release actually 3 different versions, including a very nice collectors box!
and thanks to all our fans for your undying support!!!
It means the world to us!!
