Modern, Edgy, Cool: An interview with APRIL ART

Zur deutschen Version gehts hier.

You need more Rockharz? Find Day 1, Day 2, Day 3 and Day 4 here. 

In order to prepare for Rockharz, I always listen to every band that’s going to play to help decide who I want to interview during the festival. A band that made it instantly into my Top 3 was APRIL ART from Gießen. The demeanor, the musical style and the pure energy that this band exudes is just contagious! All the more amazing that we actually got to do the interview I wanted! You can now read what the band had to say!

The pics are again provided by lightinmirror.de! Thanks again for that!

Shieldmaiden’s Voice: If you had to describe APRIL ART in three words, which would you choose?

Lisa: Energy!

Chris: Rot!

Lisa: Fun!

SV: How did you think of the name APRIL ART?

Lisa: That’s a rather boring story actually. We founded the band in April and at the time there was a lot of German pop stuff, for which we wanted to spearhead the counter movement. We wanted to do real art and that’s how we came to APRIL ART.

SV: What is the correlation to the color red then? How did you think of that?

Lisa: That was something that emerged during the pandemic. We always had a relation to the color red because of my hair and I started crafting black stage costumes that involved vibrant colors as a contrast. Then we dedicated our song Break the Silence to the campaign „Red Alert“ and we obviously had to wear red for that. We liked it so much that we just kept it!

SV: What are your most important musical influences?

Ben: KORN, PAPA ROACH…

Chris: I PREVAIL, FALLING IN REVERSE… Just to name a few. There is naturally a lot more, but it’s a mix of modern Metalcore and the typical Nu Metal bands from the early 2000s.

SV: Your current album is called Pokerface. What makes this album special?

Lisa: We wrote and produced this album all on our own. Julian recently joined the band and it was clear that this would be a new chapter for us and the band. We work very closely together as a band and because of that it’s a huge leap to have someone new join us. The four of us locked ourselves into a room and decided to just write the best album in the world. It was an amazing time which is why it was important to have no-one from outside influencing this album which was supposed to be like our baby. The current times also were a factor: We live during climate change, we went through a pandemic, or are maybe still in it, there is the war in Ukraine and we wanted to set an example by bringing something positive into this world. That is exactly what this album expresses. We want to give strength and courage to our audience. In these times it’s especially important to not lose your courage and to not drown in all the negativity around us. 

SV: Cue the pandemic: Which influence did that have on the album and on the work within the band?

Lisa: The pandemic really brought us much closer together and heavily impacted the band because we wanted to hang in there. It’s always easy to become of a victim of the circumstances and that’s exactly what we didn’t want and thought: „Now more than ever!“. We always looked ahead and thought about what we could do rather than focussing on the impossible things. 

Chris: During this time, we also had the opportunity to re-evaluate who we are and who we want to be. We took this time and were able to extremely evolve. We there everything over the heap and decided on where this journey should take us, what messages we want to convey and how we want to appear to the outside world. That helped us extremely, because we didn’t have any shows to play, what naturally sucks for other bands, but we had a whole year to think about our image, style and message. We used this time very well!

SV: You absolutely did that! The album turned out very tight as well! What does it feel like to finally be back on stage?

Lisa: It’s indescribable! Playing Rockharz today was just like a movie! You come here, see all the other bands checking their stuff, the crew is doing their work and everyone is happy somehow. Everyone is beaming and is excited that it’s finally happening again and that is an amazing aura and atmosphere. 

Chris: It’s just like a big family!

Lisa: We’ve just been on tour with ENSIFERUM, who we met yesterday and their merch lady is here, their technician is here and we meet people we know and who we met during other festivals. It’s just so nice to finally get back together again and to make music!

Julian: It’s also a relief since no one knew how long the situation would last and if there would be another cancelled festival summer. To have everything start up again and be like before is just freeing and fucking cool!

SV: How did you like your Rockharz gig? It was your first, after all!

All at once: Sick! Totally crazy! The people! Again and again with pleasure!

Lisa: It was just sick! The crowd was insane! It was magic! We played at 13:15 and that is early in the morning for a festival and the people just went totally crazy and were enjoying themselves! It was a wonderful exchange.

Chris: There was so much going on! Beforehand, we thought that it would be cool, if the infield would be halfway full, but we got on stage and there were so many people! Open Air festival feeling, beaming faces and just full on! It was overwhelming!

SV: What do you have planned for the rest of the year? You have a tour that will happen later this year. Where will this lead you?

Ben: Oh, we’re going to Wilhelmshaven, Cologne, Aschaffenburg, Berlin and Hamburg.

Lisa: Exactly! Those are the dates and everything else is on our website, so feel free to look it up! We’re very to play live a lot, because that’s what we are very good at!

SV: What is the best way to support you with your endeavors or the goals you’ve set for yourselves?

Lisa: The best way to support us would be to tell all your friends how amazing we are, to come to our concerts, to listen to and stream our music and to call your local radio station to request our songs. 

Ben: Right! Call the stations and say: „APRIL ART are sick, please play them!“

Lisa: We are excited about everyone who likes our music and we cherish the people as much as they cherish us. Social media is also important, so please like, share and comment everything! We’re always happy about that and try to answer every message and comment. That is severely important to us because we care a lot about fan loyalty. We regularly host fan events where you can win cool stuff and by doing that we try giving back.

Chris: We also do everything on our own when it comes to social media, there is no other person involved. When you write us a message, we all get excited and are happy to reply.

SV: Amazing! Unfortunately we’re nearing the end already. If you could send one message to your fans, which would it be?

Chris: Be yourselves and stay true to yourselves…

Lisa: … and believe in your dreams and pursue them! Don’t let anyone tell you anything about what you can and can’t do! Especially not yourself! We especially felt that during the pandemic. There is always a way and if you want something, then you’ll find it!

Damn! What a way to end the interview! If you like the music of APRIL ART as much as I do, then make sure to see them on tour or treat yourself to something from their merch store! I can personally attest to their awesome quality shirts!