Interview with Micha and Robert of Assassin 2006

By Bradley Smith

It’s glad to see you guys back after all this time.  The Club is a hard hitting yet thought provoking album.  How has the response been to it so far?  How do you feel about it now that you have had a little distance from it?

MICHA: Thank you. “The Club” for me turned out to be something like a sampler. You know, we took ideas from the last 15 years and we mixed it all togetherto one cd. There are songs that were written exclusively by Scholli (Real Friends, The Price of Power) or by me (Bushwhackers, The Club) and some that were composed together (Raging Mob, Go Insane). I prefer doing the whole thing together but there was no way to do it.

ROBERT: Also Dinko Vekic from the first two albums in the 80’s contributed lots of stuff into "The Club" but due to his departure to Croatia where is he living now, he did not attend the recordings of our 3rd album. As Micha mentioned all Assassin members in different times contributed to this new album. The responses actually were mostly positive and some songs like "Bushwhackers", "Real Friends" & "Raging Mob" were very much much celebrated with our old and new headbangers in the audience.

It has been quite a while since you guys had been active.  How do you feel you have changed as musicians after this long hiatus?  What made you decide the time was right to make your reappearance?

MICHA: Well, I was living in Bahia/Brasil for 6 years and Robert spent some time in Japan and later in Beijing/China, where he still lives. It was impossible to arrange rehearsals like this! Later when I returned it was easier to start. Then we had this offer to play on the Wacken Festival, which was quite a success and convinced us to continue rehearsals.

The Club appears to be on your own label?  Has it garnered you any attention from larger labels?  Are you going to sign with anyone soon or will you continue on with the freedom afforded to you by AGD Records?

MICHA: We were not searching for a label, that´s why we didn´t sign any contracts. I mean, why sign one when you end up with no money, right? Sure we had offers, but we are not interested in the moment. Everything is rolling fine for us. Maybe the right offer could change our opinion, let´s see.

ROBERT: For sure we like to be on our own label so there we can do what we want. We also do not wanna end up on a label which has already thousands of other bands and we would be just another customer. As Micha said we are open to offers which are fair and which will bring the band a new dimension, in the meantime we are very satisfied with our current situation.

Some songs lyrically seem to be platforms for your Political views.  Are you an advocate for using artistic expression as a means to comment on political and social issues?  If so what issues are most important to you today?

ROBERT: First of all we are neither preachers nor teachers. We are for ourselves. In "The Club" each song has its honest individual lyrics and the songs have no real connection to each other. "The Club" is actually a real place where people go play music or talk who live their lives rather outside the normal society BUT without on the expence on others. "Raging Mob" descibes the thinking and ideas of the today's protesters on the street, "The Price of Power" is about power-addicted people who will get destroyed by their own addiction of the hunger of more power. "Jintian Shenhuo/Live for today" is describing parts of my life as a foreigner living in Peking/China. "Real Friends" is about friendship, etc... . For me the most important thing in the lyrics is that each message is meant honestly, straight forward and I do stand 100% behind my comments. My most important issue out of all is my feeling which makes the words of each lyrics tell the story in the way I really mean it, generally meant positive, cause I am a positive guy!

It seems that Thrash as a metal style is making a comeback both with new bands resurrecting as a style and with some of the older stalwarts reactivating such as yourselves and Nuclear Assault for example.  Why do you think that is?

ROBERT: We love to play with Assassin and finally after the reunion worked out after many tries we are satisfied to play again with the band. You see, we are now 20 years older with lots of life experience and choose to play again because we do enjoy in what we do by knowing that we are doing very good. I do not know of Nuclear Assault and other bands who had reunions, but one thing is for certain: No money would bring us on stage, into the studio or rehearsal room in case we would not stand 100% behind Assassin.

Michael: Word

While we are on that topic it even seems that the German scene has regained a focus on thrash with such acts as Nocturnal, Old, and Desaster among others incorporating thrash into their sound.  What do you think of these newer bands from Germany?  Do you follow the German scene at all?

ROBERT: I left Germany 1992 to Japan and since 1994 until now I do live in China and build up my amateur-football club which I run now professionally. I listen to music with lots of old school metal (Motorhead, Slayer, old Metallica, etc.) every day. Here and there I get info about new bands when I am back home in Germany. I meet Mille from Kreator very frequently and he plus some other old metal heads keep me up to date with some stuff, but I never heard of Nocturnal, Old nor Desaster so I can not comment on the current scene at all.

Waaaaaaaaay back on Interstellar Experience you recorded a song called Junk food.  That was such a silly song but it really spoke to the whimsy of youth and our fascination with candy and such.  What are your current favourite candies and junk food?

ROBERT: "Chocomel" from Holland is my No.1 Chocolate drink. Junk food like Mc Donalds was never my favorite, I prefer Chinese homemade food way more !

The Club is a very diverse album relatively speaking.  I heard that your next album will be more straightforward.  Why will you go in that direction?  When will you be recording it?

MICHA: As I just mentioned, we took material from the last 15 years to record “The Club”, which makes it kinda diverse by nature. Our new one will be including only new material made by our current lineup. This will be more like in “one piece” I guess. Recordings are planned for December ´06 and release about in February ´07.

People sometimes have the view that Metalheads are simple and out of touch with issues that affect society.  I tend to feel that these sorts of topics are deserving of our attention.  Do you yourself have an emotional involvement with grand issues or do you just basically live a more hedonistic life, free of concerns?

ROBERT: Heavy Metal was never a political movement like Punk for example. Metalheads are comprised of all sorts of people throughout the whole society. In Metal its not important what political concept you believe in, if you are poor/rich, happy/unhappy, young/old, intelligent or not etc... . When you go to a show or bang to a metal song its like going into another world rather like a vacation from the current stressful life. The metalheads are aware of their respective lifes, but in the concerts they are one and free with their leatherjackets, spikes and nails from things like "unemployment, diseases like AIDS or Bird Flu, Terror Risks here and there, etc.... . We in Assassin are with both feet on the ground and try to live our lives as we want and can do without living on the expense of other people.

It seems to me that globalism is having a lot of very adverse affects on the world today such as warfare, massive protests, etc.  What is your opinion on such a large and complicated issue?

ROBERT: We can not reverse globalisation; a huge terrible war will unlikley destroy all computers or the internet, rather eliminate human mankind... . Most world's children are learning English and then also Arabic, Spanish, Russian, Chinese and French. We are losing lots of smaller cultures and languages which is one big price of the globalisation. The massive protest is the reaction. Spreading FEAR from the major religions and many goverments contributes to mistrust, non-dialog, and eventually war. The human is not a perfect creature, most of the time when its too late the human does learn and then only for a time being. The main card to save us is our instinct and will to survive. Now with the globalisation more and more people are getting aware of this which is a positive thing about this globalisation.

Back to music, are you guys currently touring?  How does the live performance play into your view of Assassin?  Where can we expect to see you live in the near future?

ROBERT: We played in Germany, Czech Rep., Poland and the three Baltic States Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia in 2005/2006. In summer we plan for some shows in Finland and in fall we might play in South America. In summer we will work mainly for our new album which we plan to record around Christmas. In 2007 with the release of the new album we plan to tour around Europe and play the summer 2007 Metal Festivals. Check out our website www.assassin-online.de where you find the newest info and there you can also follow up pictures and critics of already performed gigs.

Anything else you would like to say?

ROBERT: "Fight this session of self destruction, get your ass up cause you're not the only one" (from "Real Friends" of the album "The Club")

MICHA: Thanx for support.